I 




aREAT EVENTS 



IN 



MODERN HISTORY: 



COMPRISING THE JIOST KEMAKKABLE 



DISCOVERIES, CONQliibTS, REVOLUTIONS, GREAT BATTLES, 



AND OIHEE 



THRILLING INCIDENTS, 

CHIEFLY IN EUROPE AND AMERICA, 

BY JOHN FROST, LL.D. 

PROFUSELY EMBELLISHED WITH ENGRAVINGS, 
FROM DESIGNS OF W. CROOME, 
AND OTHER EMINENT ARTISTS. a 



PHILADELPHIA: 
PUBLISHED BY J. W. BRADLET; 

No. 48 NORTH FOURTH STREET 

1851. 




Eatered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S50, by L. Johnson & Co., in tho 
Clerk's OfiSce of tho District Court of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. 



Wm 8 YoL'SO, Printer 



. Hloq 



^". 



a ">> 




PREFACE. 



The object of the present work is to present, in a 
striking point of view, the most remarkable and influen 
tial events of modeni times. The author has not at- 
tempted a regular and continuous history, as that had 
already been given in the volume of his Pictorial His- 
tory of the World, devoted to modern history. But he 
has in this volume brought together a series of narra- 
tives, of such a character as he considered likely to 
interest the reader strongly, and to leave a lasting im- 
pression on the memory, at the same time that they 
exhibit the salient points of history. 



4 PREFACE. 

It has been very justly remarked, that to be really 
and extensively useful, a book must be entertaining. 
Those which lack this characteristic, however laudable 
may be their design, and however able, accurate, and 
minute their execution, cannot be generally useful, be- 
cause the mass of readers will not read them through. 
They may buy them from a sense of duty, because they 
are said to be good hooJcs; they may place them on a 
shelf and make a resolute attempt to read them occar 
sionally; but if the books are dry and repulsive, they 
are laid aside after the perusal of a few pages, and when 
repeated attempts to accomphsh the heavy task have 
failed, the undertaking is given up in desjDair. The 
volume is spoken of with great respect, and permitted 
to enjoy a dignified repose on the upper shelf. 

This is a consummation which the author of this 
work has earnestly endeavoured to avoid. It will be 
seen, by a glance at the table of contents, that the events 
selected for narration are important and worthy of 
notice — interesting m themselves, in the characters 
they exhibit, and the bearing they have exerted on the 
destiny of mankind. The authorities cited are rehable ; 
and the authors quoted are among the most eminent 
classics in history, such as Robertson, Hume, Gold- 
smith, Macauley, Bonnechose, and others of equal repu- 
tation. It is humbly hoped, therefore, that the volume 
may prove an entertaining one, so that readers Avho 
once take it up will require no inducement but its 
interesting and entertaining character to insure their 



PREFACE. 5 

reading it through. If read through, it cannot fail to 
be useful. Its facts, and the great historical personages 
it exliibits will be remembered. They cannot be for- 
gotten. 

In order the better to insure the recollection of inci- 
dents and characters presented in this volume, the 
author has embellished it profusely with engravings. 
These graphic helps to the memory exert much influ- 
ence in extending and popularizing the knowledge of 
history. They make the reader familiar with the sub- 
ject, at the same time that they afford pleasure to the 
cultivated eye, and serve to diffuse among all classes of 
readers a certain degree of knowledge and taste in the 
fine arts. 

The author is sensible to the high degree of indul- 
gence with which his very humble efforts in the cause 
of national education have been regarded by his coun- 
trjnnen. The publishers' returns of copies sold afford 
a tolerably satisfactory proof that his works are very 
widely diffused among the people; and as this has been 
the case for many years, he has reason to believe that^ 
they are also approved. For this he is deeply grateful, 
and he will always endeavour to evince the sincerity 
of his gratitude by studiously aiming at real utility in 
whatever he may offer to the notice of the public. 




CONTENTS. 



lAGE 

Introduction 15 

Accession of Francis 1 17 

Accession of Charles V 19 

Commencement of the Reformation 22 

Discoveries of the Portuguese in Africa 25 

Voyage of Vasco de Gama 28 

Voyage of Cabral 32 

Astonishing Conquests of Albuquerque in India 34 

Discovery of America 42 

Conquest of Mexico 50 

Conquest of Peru 60 

Charle? V. chosen Emperor 64 



8 CONTENTS. 



PAQE 



Luther summoned before the Emperor 67 

The Fall of Rhodes 71 

f Conspiracy of Bourbon and Death of Bayard 75 

Battle of Pavia, and Capture of Francis 1 78 

Liberation of Francis 82 

Death of Bourbon and Sacking of Rome 8i 

Expeditions of Charles V. against the States of Barbary 87 

The Reformation in England 92 

Accession of Edward VI 107 

Persecutions of the Protestants in Queen Mary's Reign Ill 

Resignation of Charles V 118 

Accession of Queen Elizabeth 123 

Death of Mary Queen of Scots 126 

Destruction of the Spanish Armada 127 

Death of Queen Elizabeth 131 

Commencement of the Civil War in France 133 

Battle of Dreux, Siege of Orleans, and Battle of St. Denis 136 

Battles of Jarnac and Montcontour 141 

Massacre of St. Bartholomew 143 

Formation of the Catholic League 150 

Assassination of the Duke of Guise 153 

Assassination of Henry III 160 

Battle of Ivri 167 

Siege of Paris 169 

Assassination of Henry IV 174 

Accession of James 1 183 

The Gunpowder Plot 185 

Discovery and Exploration of North America 189 

Settlement of Virginia 202 

Settlement of New England 208 

Rise of Wallenstein 222 

Events of the Thirty Years' War — Gustavua Adolphus — Battle of 

Leipsic 22G 

Death of Tilly — Battle of Lutzen — Death of Gustavus Adolphus 235 

Death of Wallenstein 24S 

Death of Ferdinand 11. and Bernard of Saxe Weimar — ^End of the Thirty 

Tears' War 247 



CONTENTS. S 

PAOB 

Accession of Louis XIII. of France 253 

Rise of Cardinal Richelieu 258 

Death of Richelieu and Louis XIIL, and Accession of Louis XIV 260 

The War of the Fronde 265 

Accession of Charles L and Death of the Duke of Buckingham 273 

Charles's War Tvith Scotland— Fall of StraflFord 276 

Commencement of the CItII War in England 279 

Capture of Charles 1 282 

Trial and Execution of Charles 1 284 

Accession and Government of Cromwell 287 

Restoration of Charles II 299 

Attempt of James II. to re-establish the Catholic Religion in England.... 309 

War between France and Holland — Death of Turenne 315 

War between France and Germany 322 

Accession of Philip V. of Spain 324 

Siege of Vienna 328 

King Philip's War 331 

Accession of William III. of England — Battles of the Boyne and of Au- 

ghrim 338 

Accession of Queen Anne of England 347 

Exploits of the Buccaneers 352 

Accession of George I. of England 363 

Accession of George II.— Rebellion of 1745 368 

Fall of Calcutta, and Death of the Prisoners in the Black-hole 374 

Recovery of Calcutta — Brilliant Success of Colonel Clive in India 385 

Conquest of Canada by the British 390 

The First Silesian War 403 

The Seven Tears' War in Germany 415 

Opening of the American Revolution 436 

Campaign of 1776 449 

Campaign of 1777 464 

Campaigns of 1778 and 1789 478 

Campaigns of 1780 and 1781, and Close of the War 487 

Commencement of the First French Revolution 501 

Capture of the Bastile 506 

The First Emigration 509 

The Royal Family brought from Versailles to Paris 512 

2 



10 CONTENTS. 



FIOI 



Death of Mirabeau — Flight of the King — Dissolution of the National As- 
sembly 515 

The Legislative Assembly — The Girondists 519 

Insurrection of the 10th of August — Flight of La Fayette 526 

Commencement of the Reign of Terror — September Massacres — Battle 

ofValmy 532 

The National ConTention 535 

Trial and Execution of Louis XVI 538 

Vendean War — Desertion of Dumouriez 542 

Fall of the Girondins • 545 

FaUof Danton 548 

Fall of Robespierre 550 

Bonaparte's First Campaign in Italy 555 

Bonaparte's Expedition to Egypt 564 

RcTolution of the 18th Brumaire 572 

Campaign of Austerlitz 577 

Invasion of Spain 582 

The War in Spain and Germany 589 

Napoleon's Russian Campaign 594 

Capture of the Insurgente and Vengeance 598 

The Tripolitan War ' 604 

Bombardment of Tripoli 610 

Capture of Derne and Close of the War 616 

Commencement of the War of 1812 619 

Capture of the Guerriere 629 

Capture of the Frolic and the Macedonian 631 

Capture of the Java 639 

Massacre of the Paver Raisin, and Siege of Fort Meigs 643 

Capture of York, and Defence of Sackett's Harbour 647 

Defence of Fort Stephenson 651 

Commodore Perry's Victory on Lake Erie — Battle of the Thames 655 

Battle between the Hornet and Peacock 665 

Battle between the Enterprise and Boxer 671 

Operations on the Northern Frontier in 1814 675 

Attack on Washington and Baltimore 683 

Cruise of the Essex 687 

Capture of the Epervier and Reindeer 691 



CONTENTS. 11 

PAGE 

Battle of Waterloo 702 

Expedition of the British against New Orleans — Return of Peace 696 

The Greek Revolution 706 

French Conquest of Algiers — French Revolution of 1830 709 

The Opium War between England and China 716 

The War between the United States and Mexico 723 

French Revolution of 1848 and '49 755 

The Insurrections in Germany 773 

Insurrections in Italy 788 

Acquisition of California and its Gold Mines 795 





INTRODUCTION. 




ODERN history may be regarded as 
commencing with the discovery of 
America, which took place in 1492. 
The century following (16th century) 
is one of the most remarkable in the 
history of the world, both with respect 
to its extraordinary events and its dis- 
tinguished men. It witnessed the great reformation in religion ; 
the extended conquests of the Spaniards in America, and of 
the Portuguese in India; the civil wars of France, the various 
contests of Charles V. and Francis I. ; the successful resist- 
ance of the Turkish power, threatening the conquest of the 
whole west of Europe ; the momentous reigns of Henry VIII. 
and Elizabeth, in England ; and the general diffusion of learn- 
ing and science throughout Europe by means of the recently 

discovered art of printing. 

B 13 



M 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



Nor was tliis period less remarkable for its great men. With- 
out attempting to enumerate those of inferior rank, its sovereigns 
alone Avould serve to characterize the era. '< It was the peculiar 
glory of that period," says Kobertson, " to produce the most 
illustrious monarchs, who have at any one time appeared in 
Europe. Leo, Charles, Francis, Henry, and Solyman, were 
each of them possessed of talents which might have rendered 
any age, wherein they happened to flourish, conspicuous. But 
such a constellation of great princes shed uncommon lustre on 
the sixteenth century. In every contest, great power as well 
as great abilities were set in opposition ; the eff"orts of valour 
and conduct on one side, counterbalanced by an equal exertion 
of the same qualities on the other, not only occasioned such a 
variety of events as renders the history of that period interest- 
ing, but served to check the exorbitant progress of any of those 
princes, and to prevent their attaining such pre-eminence in 
power as would have been fatal to the liberty and happiness of 
mankind." 

Our notices of the remarkable incidents of modern history 
will commence with those of the sixteenth century ; commencing 
with the accession of two of its most remarkable sovereigns, 
Francis I. of France, and Charles of Spain, afterwards elected 
emperor of Germany with the title of Charles Y. 



;';',/'(l'i!!ii'!,iir'l?i 





FRANCIS L 



ACCESSION OF FRANCIS I. 




EWIS XII. was succeeded on the 
throne of France by his son-in-law 
Francis, count of Angouleme, first 
prince of the blood, whose military 
genius, it was foreseen, would soon 
disturb the peace of Europe, (a. d. 
1515.) Young, brave, ambitious, 
and enterprising, he immediately 
turned his eyes towards Italy, as the scene of glory and of con- 
quest. His first object was the recovery of Milan. But before 
he set out on that expedition, he renewed the treaty which his 
predecessor had concluded with England ; and having nothing 
to fear from Spain, where Ferdinand was on the verge of the 
grave, he marched his army towards the Alps, under pretence 
of defending his kingdom against the incursions of the Swiss. 
Informed of his hostile intentions, that warlike people had taken 
up arms, at the instigation of the pope, in order to protect Maxi- 
milian Sforza, duke of Milan, whom they had restored to his 
dominions, and thought themselves bound in honour to support. 
These hardy mountaineers took possession of all those passes 
in the Alps through which they thought the French must enter 
Italy; and when informed that Francis had made his way into 
Piedmont by a secret route, they descended undismayed into 
the plain, and gallantly opposed themselves on foot to the heavy- 
armed cavalry of France. The two armies met at Marignan, 
near Milan, (Sept. 13 ;) where was fought one of the most furious 
and obstinate battles mentioned in the history of modern times. 
The action began towards evening : night parted the combatants : 
but next morning the Swiss renewed the attack with unabated 
ardour, and it required all the heroic valour of Francis to in- 
spire his troops with courage sufficient to resist the shock. The 
3 B 2 17 



18 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Swiss, though broken at last by the cavalry, and galled by the 
cannon, long kept their ground ; and did not retire till they had 
lost upwards of twelve thousand of their best troops, about one- 
half of their whole number. The loss of the French was very 
considerable ; twenty thousand men fell on both sides ; and the 
old Marshal Trivulzio, who had been present at eighteen pitched 
battles, used to declare, that in comparison of the battle of Ma- 
rignan, every other engagement he had seen was but the play 
of children, but this was a combat of heroes. 

The surrender of the city of Milan, and the conquest of the 
whole duchy, wei'e the consequences of this victory. Maximi- 
lian Sforza resigned his claim in consideration of a pension ; 
and Francis, having concluded a treaty with the pope and with 
the Swiss, returned into France, leaving to Charles, duke of 
Bourbon, the government of his Italian dominions. 

In the mean time, the^success and glory of the French monarch 
began to excite jealousy in the breast of the old Emperor Maxi- 
milian : nor was the rapid progress of Francis, though in so 
distant a country, regarded with indifference even by the kini: 
of England. Henry despatched a minister to the court of 
Vienna, with secret orders to propose certain payments to the 
emperor : and Maximilian, who was ever ready to embrace any 
overture to excite fresh troubles, and always necessitous, imme- 
diately invaded Italy with a considerable army. But that prince, 
being repulsed before Milan by the French garrison, and hear- 
ing that twelve thousand Swiss were advancing to its relief, re- 
tired hastily into Germany ; made peace with France and with 
Venice, (a. d, 1516,) ceded Verona to that republic for a sum 
of money, and thus excluded himself, in some measure, from all 
future access into Italy. 




ACCESSION OF CHARLES V. 



15< 




CHARLES V. 



ACCESSION OF CHARLES V. 




|HE next remarkable and influential 
event of the sixteenth century was 
the death of Ferdinand the Cath- 
olic, (Jan. 23, 1516,) and the suc- 
cession of his grandson Charles to 
his extensive dominions; an event 
^ "which had long been looked for, and 
fi-om which the most important con- 
sequences were expected. Charles, 
who had hitherto resided in the Low 
Countries, which he inherited as heir of the house of Burgundy, 
was now near the full age of sixteen, and possessed a recollec- 
tion and sedateness much above his years ; but his genius had 
yet given no indications of that superiority which its maturer 
state displayed. That capacious and decisive judgment, which 
afterwards directed so ably the affiiirs of a vast empire, was left 
to be discovered by those great events to which it gave birth, 



20 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

and those occasions which made it necessary. At present there 
was little call for it. 

Cardinal Ximenes, archbishop of Toledo, a person of equal 
virtue and sagacity, had prudently been appointed, by the will 
of Ferdinand, sole regent of Castile, till the arrival of his grand- 
son. This man, whose character is no less singular than illus- 
trious; who united the abilities of a great statesman with the 
abject devotion of a superstitious monk; and the magnificence 
of a prime minister with the austerity of a mendicant; main- 
tained order and tranquillity in Spain, notwithstanding the dis- 
contents of a turbulent and high-spirited nobility. When they 
disputed his right to the regency, he coolly showed them the 
testament of Ferdinand, and the ratification of that deed by 
Charles ; but these not satisfying them, and arguments proving 
inefibctual, he led them insensibly towards a balcony, whence 
they had a view of a large body of troops under arms, and a 
formidable train of artillery. "Behold," said the cardinal, 
raising his voice, and extending his arm, " the powers which I 
ha!ve received from his Catholic majesty : by these I govern 
Castile ! and will govern it, till the king, your master and mine, 
shall come to take possession of his kingdom." (a. d. 151T.) 
A declaration so bold and determined silenced all opposition, 
and Ximenes maintained his authority till the arrival of Charles. 

The fate of this minister merits attention, though not imme- 
diately connected with the line of general history. The young 
king was received with universal acclamations of joy ; but 
Ximenes found little cause to rejoice. He was seized with a 
violent disorder, supposed to be the effect of poison; and when 
he recovered, Charles, prejudiced against him by the Spanish 
grandees and his Flemish courtiers, slighted his advice, and 
allowed him every day to sink into neglect. The cardinal did 
not bear this treatment with his usual firmness of spirit. He 
expected a more grateful return from a prince, to whom he de- 
livered a kingdom far more flourishing than it had been in any 
former age, and authority more extensive and better established 
than the most illustrious of his ancestors had ever possessed. 
Conscious of his own integrity and merit, he could not therefore 
refrain from giving vent, at times, to indignation and complaint. 
He lamented the fate of his country, and foretold the calamities 
to which it would be exposed from the insolence, the rapacious- 



ACCESSION OF CHARLES V. 



21 



ness, and the ignorance of strangers. These feelings agitated 
the soul of Ximenes, when he received a letter from the king, 
genteelly dismissing him from his counsels, under pretence of 
easing his age of that burden, which he had so long and so ably 
sustained. This letter proved fatal to the minister. His 
haughty mind could not endure disgrace, nor his generous 
heart the stings of ingratitude : he expired a few hours after 
reading it. 




CARDINAL XIMENES. 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




REFORM EKS PREACHING. 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE REFORMATION. 




HILE Charles was taking possession of 
the throne of Spain, in consequence of 
the death of one grandfather, another was 
endeavouring to obtain for him the impe- 
i rial crown. With this view Maximilian 
assembled a diet at Augsburg, (a. D. 
1518,) where he strove to gain the favour of the electors by 
many acts of beneficence, in order to engage them to choose that 
young prince as his successor. But Maximilian himself having 
never been crowned by the pope, a ceremony deemed essential 
in that age, as well as the preceding, he was considered only as 
king of the Romans, or emperor elect ; and no example occur- 
ring in history of any person being chosen successor to a king 
of the Romans, the Germans, ever tenacious of their forms, 
obstinately refused to confer upon Charles a dignity for which 
their constitution knew no name. 

But the diet of Augsburg had other business. Thither was 
summoned Martin Luther, for « propagating new and dangeroui? 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE REFORMATION. 23 

opinions." These opinions were no other than the first prin- 
ciples of the Reformation, which soon diffused themselves through 
Grermany, which were afterwards embraced hj so many nations, 
and which separated one-half of Europe from the Romish church. 

After that enormous privilege which the Roman pontiffs as- 
sumed of disposing of crowns, and of releasing nations from 
their oath of allegiance, the most jjernicious to society was that 
r absolving individuals from the ties of moral duty. This dan- 
gerous power, or one equivalent to it, the pope claimed as the 
successor of St. P«ter, and the keeper of the spiritual treasury 
of the church, supposed to contain the superabounding good 
works of the saints, together with the infinite merits of Jesus 
Christ. Out of this inexhaustible storehouse of superabundant 
merit, his holiness might retail, at pleasure, particular portions 
to those who were deficient. He assumed, in short, and directly 
exercised the right of pardoning sins ; which was, in other words, 
granting a permission to commit them ; for if it is known, as 
had long been the case in the Romish church, at what price the 
punishment of any crime may be bought off, the encouragement 
to vice is the same as if a dispensation had been granted before- 
hand. And even that was frequently indulged. 

The influence of such indulgences upon morals may easily be 
imagined; especially in ages when superstition had silenced 
the voice of conscience, and reason was bewildered in Gothic 
darkness ; when the church had everywhere provided sanctuaries, 
which not only screened from the arm of the civil magistrate 
persons guilty of the greatest enormities, but often enabled them 
to live in affluence. 

The abuse of the sale of indulgences in Germany, where they 
were publicly retailed in alehouses, and where the produce of 
particular districts was farmed out, in the manner of a toll or cus- 
tom, awakened the indignation of Martin Luther, an Augustine 
friar, and professor of theology in the university of Wittemberg. 
Luther was also incensed, it is said, that the privilege of vend- 
ing this spiritual merchandise had been taken from his order, 
and given to the Dominicans. But be that as it may, he wrote 
and he preached against indulgences. His writings were read 
with avidity, and his discourses were listened to with admiration. 
He appealed to reason and Scripture for the truth of his argu- 
ments, not to the decisions of councils or of popes. A corner 



24 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

of the veil was now happily lifted. The people, ever fond of 
judging for themselves, (and in matters which concern them- 
selves only they have an undoubted right,) flattered by this ap- 
peal, began to call in question that authority which they had 
formerly reverenced, which they had blindly adored ; and Luther, 
emboldened by success, extended his views, and ventured to 
declaim against other abuses. From abuses he proceeded to 
usurpations; from usurpations to errors; and from one error 
to another, till the whole fabric of the Romish church began 
to totter. 

Leo, in the mean time, alarmed at the progress of this daring 
innovator, had summoned him to answer for his doctrines at 
Rome. But that citation was remitted at the intercession of 
Frederick, surnamed the Wise, elector of Saxony, who had hith- 
erto protected Luther; and his cause was ordered to be tried in 
Germany, by Cardinal Cajetan, a Dominican, eminent for scho- 
lastic learning, and the pope's legate at the imperial court. For 
this end, among others, Cajetan attended the diet at Augsburg ; 
and thither Luther repaired without hesitation, after having 
obtained the emperor's safe-conduct, though he had good 
reason to decline a judge chosen from among his avowed adver- 
saries. The cardinal received him with decent respect, and en- 
deavoured at first to gain him by gentle treatment ; but finding 
him firm in his principles, and thinking it beneath the dignity 
of his station to enter into any formal dispute, he required him, 
by virtue of the apostolic powers with which he was vested, to 
retract his errors, (without showing that they were such,) and to 
abstain, for the future, from the publication of new and danger- 
ous opinions. Luther, who had flattered himself with a hearing, 
and hoped to distinguish himself in a dispute with a prelate of 
such eminent abilities, was much mortified at this arbitrary mode 
of proceeding. His native intrepidity of mind, however, did 
not forsake him: he boldly replied, that he could not, with a 
safe conscience, renounce opinions which he believed to be true ; 
but offered to submit the whole controversy to the judgment of 
the learned, naming certain universities. This offer was rejected 
by Cajetan, who still insisted on a simple recantation ; and Lu- 
ther, by the advice of his friends, after appealing to a general 
council, secretly withdrew from Augsburg, and returned to his 
own country. 



DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE IN AFRICA. 



£5 




WAR SHIP OP THE SIXTEENTH CENTURT. 



DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE IN 
AFRICA. 



HE navigation of Europe, at the 
beginning of the fifteenth century, 
though much improved since the 
age of Charlemagne, was chiefly 
confined to the Mediterranean and 
Baltic seas, and was still little more 
than what is now called coasting. 
Flanders was the great theatre of 
commerce. Thither, the Italian 
states conveyed from the ports of 
Egypt the precious commodities of 
the East; and thither the Hanseatic merchants carried from 
the shores of the Baltic the naval stores and other rude mer- 
chandise of the North. To this common mart, all European 
nations resorted. Here they sold or exchanged the produce of 
their several countries, and supplied themselves with what they 
wanted, without dreaming of new ports, or suspecting that the 
system of commerce could be altered. Dantzic, Lisbon, and 




•26f INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Alexandria, continued to mark the limits of practical navigation ; 
when the enlightened and enterprising genius of Don Henry of 
Portugal extended the views of the mariner, and emboldened 
him to pilot the Atlantic, or Great Western Ocean. But before 
we speak of that prince, and the discoveries which he accom- 
plished, we must say a few words of his country, hitherto 
considered only as an appendage of Spain. 

Portugal, which forms the western coast of the southern penin- 
sula of Europe, had no existence as a separate state till towards 
the close of the eleventh century. About that time Alphonso 
VI., king of Castile and Leon, having conquered from the Moors 
the northern provinces of the present kingdom of Portugal, 
bestowed them, together with his natural daughter, upon Henry 
of Burgundy, a noble volunteer, who had assisted him in his 
wars. Henry took only the title of count ; but his son Alphonso, 
having recovered other provinces from the Moors, assumed the 
regal dignity in 1139. The kings of Portugal, like those of 
Spain, long spent their force in combating the Moors, and had 
no connection with the rest of Europe. The succession con- 
tinued uninterrupted in the line of Burgundy, till the death of 
Ferdinand in 1383 ; when John of Castile, who had married the 
infanta of Portugal, claimed the crown, as the king had left no 
male issue, (a. d. 1385.) But the states of Portugal, after an 
interregnum of eighteen months, gave it to John, natural brother 
of their deceased sovereign, and at that time regent of the 
kingdom. 

This John, surnamed the Bastard, no less politic than enter- 
prising, proved worthy of his new dignity. He was the first 
European prince who formed a respectable navy ; which he em- 
ployed, with equal success, in annoying his enemies and in 
protecting his subjects. He took Ceuta from the Moors, (a. d. 
1414,) and overawed the states of Barbary during his whole 
reign. He had several sons, who all signalized themselves by 
their valour and abilities ; but more especially the third, Don 
Henry, whose bold and enlightened genius, assisted by the re- 
ports of travellers, led him to project discoveries in the Western 
Ocean. 

This amiable prince, who joined the virtues of a hero and a 
patriot to the knowledge of a philosopher, tuimed to use that 
astronomy which the Arabs had preserved. He had a considera- 



DISCOVERIES OF THE PORTUGUESE IN AFRICA. 



27 



ble share in the invention of the astrolabe, and first perceived 
the advantage that might be drawn from the direction of the 
magnetic needle to the north ; which, though already known in 
Europe, had not hitherto been employed with any success in 
navigation. He established an observatory at Sagres, near 
Cape St. Vincent, where many persons were instructed in as- 
tronomy and the art of sailing. The pilots formed under his 
eye not only doubled Cape Non, long supposed an insurmountable 
barrier, but advanced as far as Cape Bajadore, and in their re- 
turn discovered the island of Madeira, (a. d. 1420.) Other 
pilots, yet more bold, were sent out. They doubled Cape Ba- 
jadore, Cape Blanco, Cape Yerd, and at last Cape Sierra Leona, 
within eight degrees of the line, before the death of Don Henry, 
(a. d. 1468.) In the course of these voyages, the Azores and 
Cape de Verd islands had been discovered, and the vine and the 
sugar-cane introduced into the island of Madeira, and there cul- 
tivated with success. 

Under the reign of John II., a prince of the most profound 
sagacity and most extensive views, who first made Lisbon a free 
port, the Portuguese prosecuted their discoveries with equal ar- 
dour and success. The river Zara, on the other side of the line, 
conducted them to the kingdom of Congo, in the interior part 
of Africa, where they made easy conquests, and established an 
advantageous commerce, (a. d. 1484.) Captain Diaz passed the 
extreme point of Africa, to which he gave the name of the 
Stormy Oape, (a. d. 1480 ;) but the king, who saw more fully 
the importance of that discovery, styled it the Cape of Good 
Mope. 




28 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




VOYAGE OF VASCO DE GAMA. 




MANUEL I. pursued the great projects 
of his predecessors, (a. d. 1497.) He 
sent out a fleet of four ships, under the 
command of Yasco de Gama, a noble 
(^ Portuguese, in order to complete the 
•^ passage to India by sea. This admiral 
possessed all the knowledge and talents 
necessary for such an expedition, (a. d. 1498.) After being 
assailed by tempests, encircling the eastern coast of Africa, and 
ranging through unknown seas, he happily arrived at the city 
of Calicut, on the coast of Malabar, or the higher part of the 
western side of the great peninsula of India. 

Calicut was at that time the emporium of Indostan. Thither 
the Arabs resorted for all the rich products and precious manu- 
factures of the East. These they carried in ships to the ports 
of the Red Sea, and sold to the Italian merchants from Alex- 
andria. This information Gama received at Melinda, on the 
coast of Zanguebar, the most eastern part of Africa, where he 
had touched, and engaged a pilot who conducted him into the 
harbour of Calicut, when the trade was at its height. Here he 
fortunately met with a native of Barbary, named Monzaida, 
who understood the Portuguese language, and whose admiration 
of that people overbalanced the prejudices of religion and 
country. This admiration determined Monzaida to do every 
thing in his power to serve strangers, who unbosomed themselves 




VABCO DE GAM A. 



VOYAGE OF VASCO DE GAMA. 31 

to him without reserve. He procured Gama an audience of the 
Samorin or emperor, who received him very favourably ; and a 
treaty of commerce was set on foot in the name of the king of 
Portugal. But this negotiation, when almost completed, was 
broken off by the insinuations of the Arabs. Jealous of their 
lucrative trade, they represented so strongly the danger of such 
an alliance, and the ambition of the Portuguese, that Samorin 
took the ungenerous resolution of putting to death those bold 
navigators, whom he had lately treated with kindness, and 
whose friendship he seemed to desire. 

Informed of his danger by the faithful Monzaida, Gama sent 
his brother on board the fleet. " Should you hear," said he, 
"of my death or imprisonment, I prohibit you, as your com- 
mander, either to attempt to release me or to avenge my fate. 
Set sail immediately and inform the king of the success of our 
voyage. I am happy in having performed his orders, and dis- 
covered a passage to India for Portugal." 

Fortunately, however, matters were not pushed to that ex- 
tremity. Gama lived to carry to Portugal the news of his own 
success. The Samorin permitted him to join his fleet, and he 
departed soon after for Europe. 

No language can express the joy of the Portuguese on the 
return of Gama to Lisbon, (a. d. 1499.) They saw themselves, 
by one daring enterprise, in possession of the richest commerce 
in the world ; and no less superstitious than avaricious, they 
flattered themselves with the project of extending their religion 
along with their dominion. 




32 



INCIDE3ITS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




VOYAGE OF CABRAL. 



HE pope farther encouraged the Portu- 
guese. Glad of an occasion of asserting 
his universal sovereignty, he granted to 
them all the countries which they had 
discovered, or should discover, in the 
East, on condition that they should 
there plant the Catholic faith. The 
whole nation was seized with the en- 
thusiasm of conversion and of conquest. 
They presented themselves in crowds 
to man the new fleet destined for India, 
(a. d. 1500:) and thirteen ships sailed, 
as soon as the season would permit, 
from the Tagus to Calicut, under the 
command of Alvarez de Qabral. 

This admiral, in his passage keeping out to sea, in order to 
avoid the calms on the coast of Africa, and the storms which 
had been met with in doubling the Cape of Good Hope, dis- 
covered the rich country now called Brazil, to which he gave 
the name of the Land of the Holy Cross. He took possession 




VOYAGE OF CABRAL. 33 

of it in the name of the king his master, and proceeded on his 
voyage. When he arrived at the coast of Malabar, the Samorin 
made him an offer of friendship, and invited him to Calicut, 
where he had an audience of that Indian prince, and was per- 
mitted to open a magazine of commerce. But this good 
understanding was of short duration. The Arabs again found 
means to poison the mind of the Samorin : the admiral did 
not behave with the greatest discretion : mutual jealousies 
took place, mutual fears, and mutual injuries. At last the in- 
habitants of Calicut rose, murdered fifty Portuguese, and burnt 
their magazine. This act of hostility did not escape unpunished. 
Cabral, in revenge of such a breach of faith and such under- 
mining perfidy, destroyed all the Arabian vessels in the port, 
beat down great part of the city, and left it in flames. 

After this second rupture with the Samorin, the measures of 
the Portuguese in India were totally changed. The peaceful 
system of Gama was laid aside : the maxims of mutual advan- 
tage gave place to those of violence, of force, and of fear ; and 
commerce was established by the sword. Cabral, on leaving 
Calicut, entered into a negotiation with the kings of Cochin, 
Cananor, Onor, Culan, and other Indian princes, who were tri- 
butaries of the Samorin, and desirous of independency, (a. d. 
1501.) This love of freedom procured the Portuguese the sove- 
reignty of Malabar and the trade of India. Cabral promised 
those deluded princes support, and carried their ambassadors to 
the court of Lisbon, where such political steps were taken as 
rendered success infallible. A force was sent out sufiicient to 
combat the Samorin. (a. d. 1502.) But no prince could obtain 
the protection of Portugal without first acknowledging himself 
its vassal, permitting a fortress to be erected in his capital, and 
selling his commoditities to his subjects at their own price. No 
strange merchant might load a cargo, till the Portuguese were 
served : nor any mariner ravage those seas, but with their pass- 
ports. They were the terror and admiration of the East, the 
wonder and envy of the West. All European merchants soon 
resorted to Lisbon for Indian commodities ; because they could 
there purchase them much cheaper than at Venice, or any other 
mart to which they were brought by the way of Egypt, (a. d. 
1508.) And happily for Portugal, the Venetians were then 
sinking under the pressure of the league of Cambray. 
5 



34 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORl. 




ASTONISHING CONQUESTS OF ALBUQUERQUE 
IN INDIA. 

N order to secure and render 
perpetual the commercial ad- 
vantages of the Portuguese, 
the chief command in India 
was given to Alphonso Albu- 
querque, a man of singular 
. sagacity and penetration, and 
equally distinguished by his 
military and political talents. 
Albuquerque was no sooner invested with the government, than 
he began to form the most extensive projects ; many of which 
he executed, and with a facility that is altogether incredible. 
The Arabs settled in India, and their associates, he had long 
been sensible, were the only power in the East that the Portu- 
guese had to fear. These traders had secretly entered into a 
league with the Samorin, the Sultan of Egypt, and the Venetians, 
Vho were gainers by their commerce, and whose interest it was 
to destroy the trade of Portugal. The furnishers of the cara- 
vans and navigators of the Red Sea were the natural enemies 




CONQUESTS OF ALBUQUERQUE IN INDIA. 37 

of the circumnavigators of the Cape. Albuquerque saw it 
early, while a private commander. He had therefore done 
every thing in his power to ruin their settlements on the coast' 
of Arabia, and their united naval force had received a signal 
overthrow in the Indian Ocean. He now extended his views : 
he projected nothing less than the conquest of Ormus in the Per- 
sian Gulf, and of Aden at the mouth of the Red Sea ; where 
Portuguese squadrons, stationed, might command the trade of 
Persia and of Egypt. 

The immediate execution of these projects would at once have 
proved fatal to the commerce of the Arabs and their allies ; but 
Albuquerque, upon mature deliberation, perceived the necessity 
of establishing the Portuguese more fully on the coast of Mala- 
bar before he divided his forces, (a. d. 1509.) He accordingly 
burnt Calicut, which had long been a thorn in the side of his 
countrymen ; and observing that the Portuguese had yet no good 
port in a wholesome air, where they might refit their ships and 
recruit their seamen, after the fatigues of the European voyage, 
he resolved to procure one. He found that Lisbon had need 
of Goa. 

Goa, which rises to view in the form of an amphitheatre, is 
situated toward the middle of the coast of Malabar, in an island 
detached from the continent by two branches of a river, that 
throws itself into the sea at some distance from the city, after 
having formed beneath its walls one of the finest harbours in the 
world. It properly belonged to the king of Decan ; but a 
Moor, named Idalcan, to whom the government of it had been 
intrusted, had rendered himself its sovereign. While this 
usurper was occupied on the continent, Albuquerque appeared 
before the city and carried it by assault, (a. d. 1510.) It was 
afterwards recovered, but soon retaken : and Goa became the 
capital of the Portuguese empire in India. 

Albuquerque, whose ambition was boundless, attempted next 
to establish the Portuguese on the coast of Coromandel, (a. d. 
1511.) With this view he made an attack upon Malacca, 
situated near the straits of Singapore, one of the richest cities 
in India, and the best adapted for commerce. It was the centre 
of the trade between Japan, China, the Spice Islands, and the 
other Indian ports. When Albuquerque appeared before Ma- 
Vcca, he found it in a posture of defence : and a new obstacle 

D 



38 INCIDENTS' Of mod KRN H I STOR V. 

conspired to retard his progress. His friend Araujo was there 
;i prisoner, and threatened with death the moment the city 
should he hesieged. Deliberating how to act, while the senti- 
ments of friendship and ambition, perhaps of duty, struggled 
in his breast, he received the following billet from Araujo: 
'' Think only of the glory and advantage of Portugal : if I 
cannot be an instrument of your victory, let me not retard it." 
The place was carried by storm after an obstinate defence and 
several changes of fortune. The Portuguese found in it an 
immense booty, both in treasure and precious commodities. 
Albuquerque, whose heart was superior to the charms of gold, 
erected a citadel to secure his conquest, and returned to Goa. 

The friendship of the Portuguese was now courted by the sa- 
tnorin, Idalcan, and all the most formidable Indian princes, who 
oifered to permit fortresses to be built and factories to be es- 
tablished in any part of their dominions. Albuquerque did not 
fail to profit by these offers ; and judging that the season was 
now arrived for giving the final blow to the Arabian commerce 
in the East, he embarked in his original projects, the conquests 
of Aden and Ormus. 

In his attempt upon Aden, which was then the key of Egypt, 
Albuquerque miscarried : but he committed so many ravages on 
the coasts of the Red Sea, and in the straits of Babelmandel, 
as entirely ruined the commei'ce of the Arabs and Egyptians. 
(a. d. 1513.) He was more successful in his expedition against 
Ormus, at that time the most opulent and splendid city in the 
East. It appears to have been nothing inferior to what we 
•are told of ancient Tyre, either in wealth or in splendour, in 
industry or in pleasure : and, like Tyre, it was seated in a bar- 
ren isle. Like Tyre, it seemed only to have been disjoined from 
the land that it might become queen of the sea. It was one of 
the greatest marts in the universe. But its voluptuous inhabi- 
tants were little able to withstand the impetuous and hardy 
valour of the Portuguese, (a. d. 1515.) Albuquerque soon 
made himself master of the place, and had the honour of there 
receiving an embassy from the king of Persia. 

The reduction of Ormus, which was the latest enterprise of 
this truly great man, together with the possession of Goa and 
Malacca, gave perfect security to the Portuguese commerce in 
India. His successors afterwards extended it into China and 



_^=^® 




g,^ 




ALBOQCSKQDK BAVAQINO THB COAST 0? THE BED SKA. 



CONQUESTS OF ALBUQUERQUE IN INDIA. 



41 



Japan ; but it was never more respectable than under Albu- 
querque. Yet this founder of his country's greatness died in 
disgrace, and of a broken heart, if ever any man may be said 
to have done so. That dauntless spirit which had encountered 
so many enemies, and surmounted so many dangers, could not 
support the frown of his prince. Emanuel, become jealous of 
his glory, had listened to the insinuations of his enemies ; had 
appointed another governor in his stead, and promoted those 
whom he sent home as criminals. When Albuquerque received 
this intelligence, he sighed and said, " Can these things be so ? 
— I incurred the hatred of men by my love for the king, and 
am disgraced by him through his prepossession for other men. 
To the grave, unhappy old man ! to the grave ! — thy actions will 
speak for themselves and for thee." 




d2 



t2 



INC!1UF,NT.S OF MODERN HISTUKY. 




tnE SA.ILINa OF COLUMBBS. 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 



HILE tlie Portuguese were employed 
in making acquisitions 
in the East, and appro- 
priating to themselves 
the most lucrative com- 
merce in the known 
world, the Spaniard's 
had discovered a new 
continent toward the 
West. They had called into existence, as it were, another 
world ; had opened new sources of trade, expanded new theatres 
of dominion, and displayed new scenes of ambition, of avarice, 
and of blood. 

Christopher Columbus, a Genoese navigator, who resided at 
Lisbon, and who had devoted himself to the study of astronomy, 
first conceived the idea of this new continent. Perfectly ac- 
quainted with the figure of the earth, the notion of the anti- 




DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 43 

podes, considered by reason as a chimera, and by religion as 
impiety, appeared to him an incontestable fact. But if Colum- 
bus had not added the stout heart of a hero to the enlightened 
mind and persevering spirit of a philosopher, the world might 
still have been ignorant of his discoveries. The Genoese, his 
countrymen, whom he proposed to put in possession of another 
hemisphere, treated him as a visionary. He also unfolded his 
project, the grandest that human genius ever formed, in 1484, 
to the court of Portugal without success. He next laid it before 
the court of Spain ; where he long suffered all that supercilious 
neglect which unsupported merit so often meets with from men 
in office, who are too apt to despise what they do not understand. 
Ferdinand and Isabella were then engaged in the conquest of 
Granada. The Spanish treasury was exhausted. But no sooner 
were the Moors subdued, than the ambitious mind of Isabella 
seemed to sympathize with the bold spirit of Columbus. She 
offered to pledge her jewels, in order to furnish him with a fleet. 
Three small vessels were fitted out by other means ; and Colum- 
bus set sail from the port of Palos,in Andalusia, on the third 
of August, in the year 1492, in quest of a Western continent, 
with the title of Admiral and Viceroy of the Isles and Lands 
which he should discover. 

Transcendent genius and superlative courage experience 
almost equal difficulty in carrying their designs into execution, 
when they depend on the assistance of others. Columbus pos- 
sessed both, he exerted both; and the concurrence of other 
heads and other hearts were necessary to give success to either: 
he had indolence and cowardice to encounter, as well as ignorance 
and prejudice. He had formerly been ridiculed as a visionary, 
he was now pitied as a desperado. The Portuguese navigators, 
in accomplishing their first discoveries, had always some refer- 
ence to the coast : cape had pointed them to cape ; but Colum- 
bus, with no landmark but the heavens, nor any guide but the 
compass, boldly launched into the ocean, without knowing what 
shore should receive him, or where he could find rest for the 
sole of his foot. His crew murmured, they mutinied ; they pro- 
posed to commit him to those waves with which he so wantonly 
sported, and return to Spain. 

This was a severe trial to the courage of Columbus, and Co- 
lumbus only, perhaps, could have supported it. The enthusiasm 



44: 



INCIDENtS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



of genius added strength to his natural fortitude. Cool and un- 
concerned himself about every thing but his great object, he had 
recourse to the softest language. He encouraged his men by fair 
promises, he deceived his officers by false reckonings. But all 
these expedients proved at last ineflFectual : he demanded three 
days' indulgence ; at the end of which, if he did not discover land, 
he promised to abandon his project. His request was granted ; 
and on the morning of the second day, being the 12th of Octo- 
ber, to his inexpressible joy, he got sight of one of the Bahama 
islands, to which he gave the name of San Salvador. He took 
possession of it in the name of their Catholic majesties, and 
proceeded on his course. 




THE LANDING OP COLUMDCS. 



After leaving San Salvador, now better known by the name 
of Guanahani, given to it by the natives, Columbus fell in with 
several other small islands ; to one of which he gave the name 
of Isabella, in honour of his patroness, and to another that of 
Ferdinand, in compliment to the Catholic king. These he 



DISCOTERY OF AMERICA. 45 

rightly judged to belong to that Western continent which he 
sought, and which he conjectured must reach to the Portuguese 
settlements in India : hence the name of West Indies. At 
length he arrived at the island of Cuba, where he entered into 
some correspondence with the natives, and particularly with the 
women, from whom he learned that the gold ornaments which 
they wore came from Bohio, a large island to the. south-east. 
Thither Columbus steered : what heart does not pant after gold ! 
He soon reached Bohio, or Hayti, as it was called by the natives, 
to which he gave the name of Espagnola, altered by us into 
Hispaniola. Here Columbus built a fort, and planted a little 
colony ; after which, having taken a general survey of the island, 
and settled a friendly intercourse with the natives, he set out on 
his return to Spain, carrying along with him a sufficient quan- 
tity of gold to evince the importance of his discoveries, and 
some of those new people, to complete the astonishment of 
Europe. 

The natives of Hispaniola, and indeed of all the islands which 
Columbus had visited, were an easy, indolent, harmless race. 
"T^hey were of a copper colour. The men and the girls went 
entirely naked ; the women had a mat of cotton wrapt about 
their loins. They had no hair on any part of the body but the 
head; a distinction which also is common to the natives of the 
.American continent. They considered the Spaniards as divini- 
ties, and the discharge of the artillery as their thunder : they 
fell on their faces at the sound. 

Columbus again entered the port of Palos on tlie loth of 
March, 1493, after a voyage of seven months and eleven days, 
and was received with universal acclamations of joy. Those who 
had ridiculed his project were the readiest to pay court to him. 
He was ordered into the presence of Ferdinand and Isabella, 
and desired to sit covered like a grandee of Spain. Royal 
favour beamed upon him with unremitting brightness, and the 
church loaded him with its benedictions. Superstition lent its 
sanction to those discoveries which had been made in its defiance. 
Pope Alexander VI. issued a bull, granting to the sovereigns of 
Spain all the countries which they had discovered, or should 
discover, a hundred leagues to the westward of the Azores. 
A fleet of seventeen sail was fitted out in a few months ; and 
Columbus, vested with yet more extensive powers, and furnished 



46 INCIDENTS OF xMODERN HISTORY. 

with every thing necessary for discovery, for colonization, o) 
for conquest, again committed himself to the waves in quest of 
a Western Continent. 

Great things were expected from this second voyage ; and 
many new islands were discovered ; yet it ended in general dis- 
appointment, misfortune, and disgust. When Columbus arrived 
at Hispaniola, with a multitude of missionaries, soldiers, and 
settlers, he found the fortress utterly ruined and the garrison 
all massacred. They had drawn upon themselves this untimely 
fate by their arrogance, licentiousness, and tyranny. These 
particulars he learned from the natives, accompanied with such 
marking circumstances as left him no room to disbelieve them. 
He therefore entered once more into friendly correspondence 
with those artless people, established a new colony, and built the 
town of Isabella; afterwards abandoned for that of St. Domin- 
go, which became the capital of the island. His next care was 
to discover the mines ; near which he erected forts and left gar- 
risons to protect the labourers. But neither the wisdom nor 
humanity of this great man was sufficient to preserve order 
among his followers, or to teach them fellow-feeling. They 
roused anew, by their barbarities, the gentle spirit of the natives ; 
they quarrelled among themselves, they rose against their com- 
mander. Mortified by so many untoward circumstances, Colum- 
bus committed the government of the island to his brother 
Bartholomew, and returned to Spain in 1496, with some samples 
of gold dust and gold ore, pearls and other precious products, 
after having a second time attempted in vain to discover a 
Western Continent. 

Bartholomew Columbus suffered many hardships, and was on 
the point of sinking under the mutineers, before he received any 
assistance from the court of Spain; and although the great 
Christopher was able to clear himself of all the aspersions of 
his enemies, some years elapsed before he could obtain a third 
appointment for the prosecution of his favourite project. At 
last a small fleet was granted to him, and he discovered the con- 
tinent of America, near the mouth of the river Orinoco, on the 
first day of August, in the year 1498. He carried off six of 
the natives, and returned to Hispaniola, convinced that he had 
now reached the great object of his ambition. 

But while Columbus was employed in reducing to obedience 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 



47 




TSS PUC1U8, 



the mutineers in that island, another navigator unjustly to<^k 
from him the honour of the discovery of the western continent. 
The merchants of Seville having obtained permission to attempt 
discoveries, as private adventurers, sent out four ships in 1499, 
under the command of Alonzo de Ojeda, who had accompanied 
Columbus in his second voyage, assisted by Americus Vespucius, 
a Florentine gentleman, deeply skilled in the science of naviga- 
tion. This fleet touched on that part of the western continent 
already discovered by Columbus, whose tract Ojeda followed ; 
and Americus, who was a man of much address, as well as pos- 
sessed of considerable literary talents, by publishing the first 
voyages on the subject, and other artful means, gave his name 
to the New World, in prejudice to the illustrious Genoese. Man- 
kind are now become sensible of the imposture, but time has 
sanctified the error ; and the great western continent, or fourth 
division of the globe, so long unknown to the inhabitants of 
Europe, Asia, and Africa, still continues to be distinguished by 
the name of America. 

This, however, was but a small mistortune in comparison of 
what Columbus was doomed to suffer. His enemies having pre- 
vailed at the court of Madrid, a new governor was sent out to 
Hispaniola. The great discoverer and his brother were loaded 
with irons, and sent home in that condition, in different ships. 
Touched with sentiments of veneration and pity, Vallejo, cap- 



48 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORF. 




COLUMBUS IN CHAINS. 



tain of the vessel on board of which the admiral was confined, 
approached his prisoner with profound respect, as soon as he was 
clear of the island, and offered to strike off the fetters with 
which he was unjustly bound. "No, Vallejo !" replied Colum- 
bus, with a generous indignation, "I wear these fetters in con- 
sequence of an order from my sovereigns. They shall find me 
as obedient to this as to all their other injunctions. By their 
command I have been confined, and their command alone shall 
set me at liberty." 

The Spanish ministry were ashamed of the severity of their 
creature, Bovadilla : Columbus was set at liberty on his arrival, 
and a fourth command granted to him in 1502, for the prosecu- 
tion of farther discoveries. But this expedition did not prove 
more fortunate than the former ; for although Columbus touched 
at several parts of the American continent, where he exchanged 
trinkets for gold and pearls, to a considerable amount, he failed 
in an attempt to establish a colony on the river Yebra or Belem, 
in the province of Veragua, and lost every thing in his course 
home. He was shipwrecked on the island of Jamaica: his fol- 
lowers mutinied ; and after being alternately in danger of perish- 



DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. 



49 



ing by hunger, or by violence, he arrived in Spain, in 1505, to 
experience a more severe fate than either. Queen Isabella was 
dead at his return. With her, all his hopes of future favour 
perished The court received him coldly. His services were 
too great for humility ; his proud heart disdained to sue, and his 
aspiring spirit could not submit to neglect. He retired to Vala- 
dolid, where he was suffered to fall a martyr to the ingratitude 
of that monarch, to whom he had given the West Indies, and 
for whom he had opened a passage into a richer and more ex- 
tensive empire than was ever subdued by the Roman arms. 
He died with firmness and composure, on the 20th of May, 
1506, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. 

There is something in true genius which seems to be essen- 
tially connected with humanity. Don Henry, Gama, and Colum- 
bus, prosecuted their discoveries upon the most liberal principles, 
those of mutual advantage : they sought to benefit, not to 
destroy their species. After the death of Columbus, the maxims 
of Spain, like those of Portugal, became altogether bloody. 
Religion, avarice, and violence, walked hand in hand. The cross 
was held up as an object of worship, to those who had never 
heard of the name of Jesus ; and millions were deliberately 
butchered, for not embracing tenets which they could not under- 
stand, not delivering treasures which they did not possess, or 
not suffering oppressions which man was never born to bear, and 
which his nature cannot sustain. 




50 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




LANDING 01- C R 1' K Z IN MEXICO. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 



HE leader ■who pursued the career of 
arms in Spanish America, with least 
violence to humanity, and most ad- 
vantage to his country, was Fernando 
Oortez, the conqueror of Mexico. 
Before the discovery of that rich and 
powerful empire, the Spanish colonies 
of Hispaniola, Cuha, Jamaica, and 
Porto Kico, were in a flourishing con- 
dition : frequent expeditions had been 
made to the continent, the settlements established in Castello del 
Oro and the Isthmus of Darien. At last a descent was made in 
the Gulf of Mexico, and information received of the opulence 
and grandeur of the Emperor Montezuma and his capital, (a. d. 
1518.) Velasquez, governor of Cuba, to whom this intelligence 
was communicated, immediately resolved upon the conquest of 
Mexico, and committed to Cortez, an officer hitherto more dis- 
tinguished by his merit than his rank, the execution of the en- 
terprise: and that gallant soldier accomplished, what appears 




CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 51 




MONTEZUMA. 



too bold even for fiction, the overthrow of an empire that could 
send millions into the field, with so small a force as five hundred 
men. 

A success so unexampled, in an unknown country, must have 
been accompanied with many favourable circumstances, inde- 
pendent of the ability of the general, the courage of the troops, 
and even the superiority of weapons. Some of these we know. 
When Cortez landed with his little army on the coast of Mexico, 
(a. d. 1519,) he met with a Spanish captive, who understood the 
dialect of the country, and whose ransom he obtained. He also 
formed an intimacy with a fair American named Marina, who 
soon learned the Castilian language, and became both his mis- 
tress and his counsellor. 

To these fortunate occurrences may be added, the arrival of 
the ambassadors of Montezuma, who endeavoured, by presents, 
to engage the invaders to re-embark. The delay which this 
negotiation produced was of infinite service to Cortez. An 
army, instead of an embassy, on his first landing, might have 
ruined him. He replied, by his female interpreter, who best 
understood the Mexican tongue, that he was only an ambassador 
himself, and, as such, could not depart without an audience of 
the emperor. This answer put the ambassadors of Montezuma 
to a stand. They reported it to the emperor. He was alarmed 



62 mCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

at the request. They redoubled their presents : they employed 
persuasions, but to no purpose. Cortez was inflexible. At last 
they had recourse to threats, according to their instructions, and 
talked loudly of the forces and treasures of their country. 
"These," said Cortez, turning to his companions, "these are 
what we seek ; great perils and great riches." Stronger motives 
could not have been offered to needy adventurers, burning with 
the spirit of chivalry and the lust of plunder. Their leader 
saw conquest in their looks; and having now received the neces- 
sary information, and prepared himself against all hazards, he 
boldly marched toward the seat of empire. 

The Spanish general, however, though so little diffident of his 
own strength, prudently negotiated with such princes and states 
as he found to be enemies of the Mexicans. Among these the 
most powerful was the republic of Tlascala. Cortez proposed 
an alliance to the senate. It divided upon the subject: but at 
last came to a resolution, not only to deny assistance to the 
Spaniards, but to oppose them. This resolution had almost 
proved fatal to Cortez and his enterprise. The Tlascalans were 
a brave people, and brought a formidable army into the field ; 
but by the help of fire-arms, artillery, and cavalry, to those re- 
publicans above all things tremendous, the Spaniards, after 
repeated struggles, were enabled to humble them. They saw 
their mistake ; entered into a treaty with Cortez, and were 
highly serviceable in his future operations. 

The invaders now advanced without interruption to the gates 
of Mexico. Montezuma was all irresolution and terror. That 
mighty emperor, whose treasures were immense, and whose sway 
was absolute ; who was lord over thirty princes, each of whom 
could bring a numerous army into the field, was so intimidated 
by the defeat of the Tlascalans, that he wanted resolution to 
strike a blow in defence of his dignity. The haughty potentate 
who had ordered Cortez to depart his coasts, introduced him into 
his capital. Instead of making use of force, he had recourse 
to perfidy. While he professed friendship to the Spanish 
general, he sent an army to attack the Spanish colony, newly 
settled at Vera Cruz, and yet in a feeble condition. Cortez re- 
ceived intelligence of this breach of faith, and took one of the 
boldest resolutions ever formed by man. He immediately pro- 
ceeded to the imperial palace, accompanied by five of his prin- 




THE DEFEAT OF SARVAES. 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 



55 




MONTEZUMA CHAIKED. 



cipal oflBcers, and arrested Montezuma as his prisoner; carried 
him off to the Spanish quarters ; made him deliver to punish- 
ment the officer who had acted by his orders, and publicly 
acknowledge himself, in the seat of his power, the vassal of the 
king of Spain. 

In the height of these successes, Cortez was informed that a 
new general, Pamphilo de Narvaez, sent by the governor of 
Cuba, was arrived with a superior force to supplant him in the 
command, and reap the fruits of his victory, (a. d. 1520.) He 
marched against his rival : he defeated him ; he took him pri- 
soner; and the vanquished army, gained by the magnanimity 
and confidence of the victor, ranged themselves under his 
standard. Thus reinforced, by an occurrence which threatened 
the extinction of his hopes, he returned with rapidity to the 
city of Mexico, where he found full occasion for this accession 
of strength. 

The Mexicans were all in arms, and had surrounded the party 
which Cortez had left to guard the emperor. This insurrection 
was occasioned by the avarice and intemperate zeal of the 
Spaniards; who, on a solemn festival in honour of the gods of 
the country, had massacred two thousand of the Mexican nobles, 
under pretence of a secret conspirn^^y, nnd stripped them of their 



56 



INCroENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




precious ornaments. The spirit of the people was roused : they 
were incensed at the confinement of their prince ; they were 
filled with holy indignation at the insult offered to the gods, and 
they longed to revenge the fate of their nobility. Cortez found 
it diflBcult to resist their fury. They permitted him, however, 
to join his detachment, though not from motives of friendship 
or generosity : they hoped to involve the whole body of Spaniards 
in one undistinguished ruin. "We have discovered," said they, 
« that you are not immortal ; and although the death of every 
Spaniard should cost us a thousand lives, we are -determined to 
complete your destruction. After so great a slaughter there 
will still remain a suflScient number to celebrate the victory." 

In consequence of this resolution, the Mexicans attacked the 
Spanish quarters with incredible bravery. They were several 
times repulsed, and as often returned to the charge with undi- 
minished ardour. They devoted themselves cheerfully to death ; 
boldly advanced in the face of the artillery, threw themselves 
in crowds upon the musketry, and fearlessly grappled the mouths 
of the guns in attempting to ascend the fortifications. Monte- 
zuma judged this a favourable opportunity for obtaining hi.s 
freedom and the departure of the Spaniards. On those condi- 
tions he consented to employ his good 0*^1063 with his people. 



CONQIEST OF MEXICO. 



57 




CORTBZ OVERLOOKINO THE PLAIN OP OIUMBA. 

He showed himself on the ramparts, clad in his royal robes, and 
endeavoured to induce the multitude to retire. They at first 
seemed overawed by the presence of their sovereign, and ready 
to obey his commands ; but suddenly recollecting the pusillani- 
mity of his behaviour, their love was changed into hate, their 
veneration into contempt, and a stone, launched by an indignant 
arm, at once deprived Montezuma of the empire and his life. 

That accident gave sincere concern to Cortez, and was a real 
mbfortune to the Spaniards. The successor of Montezuma was 
a fierce and warlike prince, and resolutely determined to support 
the independency of his country. Cortez, after several ineffec- 
tual struggles, found himself under the necessity of quitting the 
city. The Mexicans harassed him in his retreat ; they took from 
him all his baggage and treasure ; and they engaged him in the 
field, before he had time to recruit his forces, with an army of 
two hundred thousand men. The ensigns of various nations 
waved in the air, and the imperial standard of massy gold was 
displayed. Now was the time of heroism ; and stronger proofs 
of it were never exhibited than in the valley of Utumba. 
"Death or victory !" was the charge, and the resolution of every 
Spaniard. The Mexicans were soon broken, and a terrible 
slaughter ensued; but fresh crowds still pressing on, supplied 
8 



58 



INCIDENTS OF MODERM HISTORY. 




GLADIATORIAL 8ACEIFICES OF THE MEXICANS. 



the place of the slain, and the Spaniards must have sunk under 
the fatigue of continual fighting, had not Cortez, by a happy 
presence of mind, put an end to the dispute and rendered the 
victory decisive. He rushed, at the head of his cavalry, towards 
the imperial standard, closed with the Mexican general who 
guarded it, and at one stroke of his lance tumbled him out of his 
litter. The standard was seized, and the consequence proved, 
as Cortez had expected : the Mexicans threw dow^n their arms, 
and fled with precipitation and terror. 

This victory, and the assistance of the Tlascalans, encouraged 
Cortez to undertake the siege of Mexico : and another fortunate 
circumstance enabled him to complete his conquest. The new 
emperor, Guatimozin, was taken prisoner in attempting to make 
his escape out of his capital, in order to rouse to arms the dis- 
tant provinces of his dominions, (a. d. 1521.) The metropolis 
surrendered, and the whole empire submitted to the Spaniards. 

The city of Mexico is represented as one of the most striking 



CONQUEST OF MEXICO. 5i) 

monuments of human grandeur. Its spacious squares, its sump- 
tuous palaces, its magnificent temples, are pompously displayed 
by the Spanish historians ; but we must not give entire credit 
to those splendid descriptions. The mechanical arts could not 
be carried to great perfection in a country where the use of iron 
was unknown ; nor could the sciences or liberal arts be culti- 
vated with success among a people ignorant of letters. The 
hieroglyphics, which the Mexicans are said to have made us-j 
of for communicating their ideas, could but imperfectly answer 
that end, in comparison of general symbols or signs ; and with- 
out a facile method of recording past transactions, and of pre- 
serving our own thoughts and those of others, society can never 
make any considerable progress. The ferocious religion of the 
Mexicans is another proof of their barbarity ; for although we 
frequently find absurd ceremonies prevail among polished na- 
tions, we seldom or ever meet with those that are cruel. Civil- 
ized man has a feeling for man. Human blood was profusely 
spilled upon the altars of the Mexican gods : and, if we believe 
the most respectable Spanish historians, human flesh (though 
only that of enemies) was greedily devoured both by the priests 
and the people. Enormous superstition and excessive despotism 
always go hand in hand. When the mind is enslaved, it is easy 
to enslave the body. Montezuma was the most absolute sove- 
reign upon earth, and his subjects the most abject slaves. 




60 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




RUINS OF THE PALACE OP THE INOAS. 



CONQUEST OF PERU. 



HE conquest of Mexico was followed by 
that of Peru, another country in the 
New World, abounding yet more m 
precious metals. 

Peru had long been governed by a 
race of emperors, under the name of 
Incas, who were supposed to be the 
descendants of the sun. (a. d. 1532.) 
The name of the Spanish invader was 
Pizarro, assisted by Almagro and Luque, 
and that of the Inca in possession of 
the crown, Atahualpa. Alarmed at the ravages of the Spaniards, 
this prince agreed to an interview with their general, in order to 
settle the conditions of a peace. Though Pizarro solicited the 
conference, he had no thoughts but of war. The Inca, it is said, 
was not more sincere in his professions. He came to the place 
of meeting carried upon a throne of gold, and attended by up- 




CONQUEST OF PERU 



6] 




P I Z A R R 0. 



wards often thousand men : twenty thousand more are reported 
to have waited his signal ; but for this report, or the insincerity 
of the Inca, there seems to have been no foundation in fact. 
All the Peruvians were richly dressed, and their arms glittered 
with gold and precious stones. The avarice of the Spaniards 
was inflamed. Pizarro disposed his followers, who did not ex- 
ceed two hundred, in the most advantageous order, while Vin- 
centi Valverde, a Dominican friar, advanced towards Atahualpa, 
with a crucifix in one hand and a breviary in the other. He 
addressed to the Inca, by the help of an interpreter, a long dis- 
course, unfolding the principles of the Christian faith, and press- 
ing him to embrace that religion, and submit himself to the king 
of Spain, to whom the pope had given Peru. Atahualpa, who 
had listened with a good deal of patience, replied thus to his 
pious admonisher : « How extravagant is it in the pope, to give 
away so liberally that which does not belong to him ! — He is 
inferior, you own, to God the Father, to God the Son, and to 
God the Holy Ghost : these are all your gods : and the gods 
only can dispose of kingdoms. I should like to be a friend to 



(J2 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




ALUAORO. 



the king of Spain, who has sufficiently displayed his power by 
sending armies to such distant countries ; but I will not be his 
vassal. I owe tribute to no mortal prince : I know no superior 
upon earth. The religion of my ancestors I venerate : and to 
renounce it would be equally absurd and impious, until you have 
convinced me it is false, and that yours, which you would have 
me embrace, is true. You adore a god, who died upon a gibbet ; 
I worship the sun, who never dies." 

"Vengeance!" — cried Valverde, turning towards the Spa- 
niards ; — « vengeance ! my friends ; — kill these dogs, who de- 
spise the religion of the cross." 

The word of command was given ; the artillery played ; the 
musketry fired ; the cavalry spread confusion and terror, while 
Pizarro advanced, at the head of a chosen band, and seized the 
person of the Inca. The slaughter was dreadful, and the pillage 
immense. The blow was final : Peru ceased to be an empire. 
The descendants of the Sun, who united in their person both 
the regal and pontifical dignity, sunk under a set of banditti 



CONQUEST OF PERU. 



63 



that knew not their birth. After draining Atahualpa of hia 
treasure, under pretence of a ransom for his liberty, Pizarro 
condemned him to be burnt alive, as an obstinate idolater, (a. d. 
1533.) But through the mediation of Father Valverde, (blessed 
intercessor !) the Inca's sentence was changed into strangling, 
on condition that he should die in the Christian faith ! 

The conquest of Mexico and Peru put the Spaniards at once 
in possession of more specie than all the other nations of Europe. 
Yet Spain from that era has continued to decline. It has de- 
clined in population, industry, and vigour. The vices attendant 
upon riches have corrupted all ranks of men, and enervated the 
national spirit. From being the first kingdom in Europe, it is 
become one of the less considerable. Portugal has experienced 
a like fate, since the discovery of the passage to India by the 
Cape of Good Hope, and the settlement of Brazil : and from 
the same cause, a too great and sudden influx of wealth. 




til 



INCIDENTS OF MODKUN HISTORV. 




CHARLES V. CHOSEN EMPEROR. 




'"^"°^ HOUGH Maximilian could not 
prevail upon the German 
electors to choose his grand- 
son of Spain king of the Romans, 
he had disposed their minds in favour 
of that prince : and other circum- 
stances, on the death of the emperor, 
conspired to the exaltation of Charles. 
(a. d. 1519.) The imperial croAvn had so 
long continued in the Austrian line, that 
it began to be considered as hereditary in that family ; and 
Germany, torn by religious disputes, stood in need of a power- 
ful emperor, not only to preserve its own internal tranquillity, 
but also to protect it against the victorious arms of the Turks, 
who, under Selim I., threatened the liberties of Europe. This 
fierce and rapid conqueror had already subdued the Mamalukes, 
a barbarous militia that bad dismembered the empire of the 
Arabs, and made themselves masters of Egypt and Syria. The 
power of Charles appeared necessary to oppose that of Selim. 
The extensive dominions of the house of Austria, which gave 
him an interest in the preservation of Germany; the rich so- 
vereignty of the Netherlands and Franche-Corate ; the entire 
possession of the great and warlike kingdom of Spain, together 
with that of Naples and Sicily, all united to hold him up to the 
first dignity among Christian princes: and the New World 



CHARLES V. CHOSEN EMPEROR. 65 

seemed only to be called into existence, that its treasures might 
enable him to defend Christendom against the infidels. Such 
was the language of his partisans. 

Francis I., however, no sooner received intelligence of the 
ieath of Maximilian, than he declared himself a candidate for 
the empire, and with no less confidence of success than Charles. 
He trusted to his superior years and experience, with his great 
reputation in arms, acquired by the victory at Marignan, and 
the conquest of Milan. And it was further urged in his favour, 
that the impetuosity of the French cavalry, added to the 
firmness of the German infantry, would prove irresistible ; and 
not only be sufficient, under a warlike emperor, to set limits to 
the ambition of Selim, but to break entirely the Ottoman 
power, and prevent it from ever becoming dangerous again to 
Germany. 

Both claims were plausible. The dominions of Francis were 
less extensive, but more united than those of Charles. His 
subjects were numerous, active, brave, lovers of glory and lovers 
of their king. These were strong arguments in favour of his 
power, so necessary at this juncture ; but he had no natural 
interest in the Germanic body : and the electors, hearing so 
much of military force on each side, became more alarmed for 
their own privileges than the common safety. They determined 
to reject both candidates, and offered the imperial crown to 
Frederic, surnamed the Wise, duke of Saxony. But he, undaz- 
zled by the splendour of an object courted with so much eager- 
ness by two mighty monarchs, rejected it with a magnanimity 
no less singular than great. 

" In times of tranquillity," said Frederic, " we wish for an 
emperor who has no power to invade our liberties ; times of 
danger demand one who is able to secure our safety. The 
Turkish armies, led by a warlike and victorious monarch, are 
now assembling : they are ready to pour in upon Germany with 
a violence unknown in former ages. New conjunctures call for 
new expedients. The imperial sceptre must be committed to 
some hand more powerful than mine, or that of any other Ger- 
man prince. We possess neither dominions, nor revenues, nor 
authority, which enable us to encounter such a formidable 
enemy. Recourse must be had, in this exigency, to one of the 
rival monarchs. Each of them can bring into the field forces 
9 f2 



66 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

sufficient for our defence. But, as the king of Spain is of Ger 
man extraction, as he is a member and prince of the empire bj 
the territories which descend to him from his grandfather, anu 
as his dominions stretch along that frontier "which lies most ex- 
posed to the enemy, his claim, in my opinion, is preferable to 
that of a stranger to our language, to our blood, and to our 
country." Charles was elected in consequence of this speech. 
The two candidates had hitherto conducted their rivalship 
with emulation, but without enmity. They had even softened 
their competition by many expressions of friendship and regard. 
Francis in particular declared, with his usual vivacity, that his 
brother Charles and he were fairly and openly suitors to the 
same mistress : " The most assiduous and fortunate," added 
he, "will win her ; and the other must rest contented." But, 
although a generous and high-minded prince, while animated by 
the hope of success, might be capable of forming such a philo- 
sophic resolution, it soon appeared that he had promised a 
moderation too refined for humanity, and which he was little 
able to practise. Charles was elected emperor on the 28th of 
June, 1520. The preference was no sooner given to his rival 
than Francis discovered all the passions natural to disappointed 
ambition. He could not suppress his chagrin and indignation 
at being baulked in his favourite purpose, and rejected in the 
face of all Europe, for a youth yet unknown to fame. The 
spirit of Charles resented such contempt : and from this jea- 
lousy, as much as from opposition of interests, arose that emu- 
lation between those two great monarchs, which involved them 
in almost perpetual hostilities, and kept their whole age in 
agitation. 




LUTHER SUMMONED BEFORE THE EMPEROR. 



67 




LUTHER SUMMONED BEFORE THE EMPEROR. 



'^M^: HE first act of Charles's administra- 
^^ tion was the appointing a diet to 
be held at Worms, in order to con- 
' J cert "with the princes of the empire 
proper measures for checking the 
S progress of "those new and dan- 
gerous opinions which threatened 
to disturb the peace of Germany, 
and to overturn the religion of 
their ancestors." The opinions 
propagated by Luther and his fol- 
lowers were here meant. That bold innovator, after the diet at 
Augsburg and the death of Maximilian, had freely promulgated 
his opinions, under the protection of the elector of Saxony, to 
whom the vicariate of that part of Germany which is governed 
by the Saxon laws was committed, during the interregnum that 
preceded the election of Charles V. And these opinions were 




68 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

suffered to take root in different places, and to grow up to some 
degree of strength and firmness. But Leo X., though little skilled 
in such controversies, came at last to be alarmed at Luther's 
progress ; and convinced that all hopes of reclaiming him by for- 
bearance were in vain, issued a bull of excommunication against 
him. His books were ordered to be burnt, and he himself was 
delivered over to Satan as an obstinate heretic, if he did not, 
within sixty days, publicly recant his errors. 

THis sentence neither disconcerted nor intimidated Luther. 
After renewing his appeal to a general council, he published 
remarks upon the bull of excommunication, and boldly declared 
the pope to be the man of sin, or Antichrist, whose appearance 
is foretold in the Revelation of St. John ; declaimed against the 
tyranny and usurpations of the court of Rome with greater vehe- 
mence than ever, exhorted all Christian princes to shake off 
such an ignominious yoke, and boasted of his own happiness in 
being marked out as the object of ecclesiastical indignation, 
because he had ventured to assert the rights of religion and the 
mental liberty of mankind. Nor did he confine his contempt of 
the papal power to words alone. He assembled all the profes- 
sors and students of the university of Wittemberg, and with great 
pomp, and before a vast multitude of spectators, cast the volumes 
of the canon law, together with the bull of excommunication, into 
the flames : and his example was imitated in several other cities. 

While the credit and authority of the Roman pontiff were 
thus furiously shaken in Germany, an attack no less violent, 
and occasioned by the same causes, was made upon them in 
Switzerland. The Franciscans, being intrusted with the sale 
of indulgences in that country, executed their commission with 
the same unblushing rapaciousness which had rendered the Do- 
minicans so odious in Saxony. They proceeded, however, with 
uninterrupted success till they arrived at Zurich ; where they 
received a mortal blow from Zuinglius, canon of that place, a 
man of extensive learning, uncommon sagacity, and heroic intre- 
pidity of spirit. Animated with a republican boldness, and free 
from, those restraints which subjection to the will of a prince, 
and perhaps a remnant of original prejudice, imposed upon the 
German reformer, he advanced with more daring and rapid 
steps to overturn the whole fabric of the established religion ; 



LUTHER SUMMONED BEFORE THE EMPEROR. 69 

and the pope's supremacy was soon denied in the greater part 
of Switzerland. 

Such was the state of the Reformation, when Charles V. 
arrived in Germany. No secular prince had yet embraced the 
new opinions ; no change in the established forms of worship had 
been introduced, nor any encroachments made upon the pos- 
sessions or jurisdiction of the clergy : a deep impression, how- 
ever, was made upon the minds of the people ; their reverence 
for ancient institutions and doctrines was shaken; and the 
materials were already scattered, which produced the conflagra- 
tion that afterwards spread over all Europe. Charles saw the 
flames gathering ; and, as he found it necessary to secure the 
friendship of Leo X., he cited Luther to appear before the diet 
at Worms, (a. d. 1521.) Luther did not hesitate a moment 
about yielding obedience : he accompanied the herald who brought 
the emperor's letter and safe-conduct. " I am lawfully called to 
appear in that city," said he to some of his friends, who were 
anxious for his safety : " and thither I will go in the name of 
the Lord, though as many devils as tiles upon the houses were 
there assembled against me." 

Had vanity and the love of applause, from which no human heart 
is free, been the sole principles by which Luther was influenced, 
his reception at Worms was such as he might have reckoned a 
full reward for all his labours. Vast crowds assembled to see 
him whenever he walked abroad ; and his apartments were daily 
filled with princes and personages of the highest rank, who treated 
him with all the respect that is due to superior merit, but which 
is more particularly commanded by those who possess the power 
of directing the understanding and the sentiments of others, 
llank^ or birth can receive no homage so flattering ; for they 
can receive none so sincere, or which has so immediate a refer- 
ence to those qualities which men call their own. Luther was 
not, however, intoxicated : he behaved before the diet with equal 
decency and firmness. He readily acknowledged an excess of 
vehemence and acrimony in his controversial writings ; but he 
refused to retract his opinions, till convinced of their falsehood, 
or consent to their being tried by any other standard than the 
Scripture. Neither threats nor entreaties could prevail on him to 
depart from this resolution. Some of the fathers therefore pro- 
posed to imitate the example of the council of Constance, in its 



70 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



proceedings relative to John Huss ; to commit to the flames the 
author of this pestilent heresy, now in their power, and deliver 
the church at once from so dangerous an enemy : but the members 
of the diet refusing to expose the German integrity to fresh re- 
proach by a second violation of public faith, and Charles being 
no less unwilling to bring a stain upon the beginning of his ad- 
ministration by such an ignominious measure, Luther was per- 
mitted to depart in safety. A few days after he left the city, 
a severe edict was issued in the emperor's name, and by author- 
ity of the diet, forbidding any prince to harbour him, and re- 
quiring all to concur in seizing his person as soon as his safe- 
conduct was expired. But the elector of Saxony, his faithful 
patron, took him again, though secretly, under protection. Lu- 
ther, in solitude, propagated his opinions ; and Charles, for a 
time, found other matters to engage his attention. 




COSTUME OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTORT. 



THE FALL OF RHODES 




THE FALL OF RHODES. 




HILE the Christian princes were wast- 
ing each other's strength, Solyman the 
Magnificent entered Hungary with :>. 
numerous army, and investing Bel- 
grade, which was deemed the chief bar- 
rier of that kingdom against the Turk- 
ish arms, soon forced it to surrender. 
Encouraged by this success, he turned 
his victorious arms against the island 
of Rhodes, the seat, at that time, of the knights of St. John 
of Jerusalem. This small state he attacked with such a nu- 
merous army as the lords of Asia have been accustomed in 
every age to bring into the field. Two hundred thousand men, 
and a fleet of four hundred sail, appeared against a town de- 
fended by a garrison consisting of five thousand soldiers, and 
six hundred knights, under the command of A^illiers de L'lslc 
Adam, the grand master, whose wisdom and valour rendered 
him worthy of that station at such a dangerous juncture. Nn 
sooner did he begin to suspect the destination of Solyraan\> 
vast armaments, than he despatched messengers to all the Chris- 
tian courts, imploring their aid against the common enemy 



72 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



But though every prince in that age acknowledged Rhodes to 
be the great bulwark of Christendom in the east, and trusted 
to the gallantry of its knights as the best security against the 
progress of the Ottoman arms ; though Adrian, with a zeal 
which became the head and father of the church, exhorted the 
contending powers to forget their private quarrels, and, by 
uniting their arms, to prevent the Infidels from destroying a 
society which did honour to the Christian name ; yet so violent 
and implacable was the animosity of both parties, that, regard- 
less of the danger to which they exposed all Europe, and un- 
moved by the entreaties of the grand master or the admonitions 
of the pope, they suifered Solyman to carry on his operations 
against Rhodes without disturbance. The grand master, after 
incredible efi"orts of courage, of patience, and of military con- 
duct during a siege of six months ; after sustaining many as- 
saults, and disputing every post with amazing obstinacy, was 
obliged at last to yield to numbers ; and having obtained an 
honourable capitulation from the sultan, who admired and re- 
spected his virtue, he surrendered the town, which was reduced 
to a heap of rubbish, and destitute of every resource. Charles 
V. and Francis I., ashamed of having occasioned such a loss to 
Christendom by their ambitious contests, endeavoured to throw 
the blame of it on each other, while all Europe, with greater 
justice, imputed it equally to both. The emperor, by way of 
reparation, granted the knights of St. John the small island of 
Malta, in which they fixed their residence, retaining, though 
with less power and splendour, their ancient spirit and implaca- 
ble enmity to the Infidels. 





DEATH OP CHETALIEE BATARD. 



CONSPIRACY OF BOURBON AND DEATH OF BAYARD. 75 




CONSPIRACY OF BOURBON AND DEATH OF 
BAYARD. 

T has already been intimated that Charles V. 
and Francis I. were often at war. During 
one of their wars, of which Italy was the 
theatre, Francis on his march to that coun- 
try was obliged to stop short at Lyons, in 
consequence of the discovery of a plot which 
threatened the destruction of his kingdom. 
Charles, duke of Bourbon, high constable 
of France, was a prince of the most shining talents. His great 
abilities equally fitted him for the council or the field, while his 
eminent services to the crown entitled him to its first favour. 
But unhappily Louisa, duchess of Angoul^me, the king's mother, 
had contracted a violent aversion against the house of Bourbon, 
and had taught her son, over whom she had acquired an abso- 
lute ascendant, to view all the constable's actions with a jealous 
eye. After repeated aifronts he retired from court, and began 
to listen to the advances of the emperor's ministers. Mean- 
time the duchess of Bourbon happened to die ; and as the con- 
stable was no less handsome than accomplished, the duchess of 
Angouleme, still susceptible of the tender passions, formed the 
scheme of marrying him. But Bourbon, who might have ex- 
pected every thing to which an ambitious mind can aspire, from 
the doating fondness of a woman who governed her son and the 
kingdom, incapable of imitating Louisa in her sudden transition 
from hate to love, or of meanly counterfeiting a passion for one 
who had so long pursued him with unprovoked malice, treated 
the proposal with disdain, and even turned it into ridicule. At 
once refused and insulted by the man whom love only could 
have made her cease to persecute, Louisa was filled with all the 
rage of disappointed woman : she resolved to ruin, since she 
could not marry Bourbon. For this purpose she commenced 



76 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

an iniquitous suit against him ; and by the chicanery of Chan- 
cellor Du Prat, the constable was stript of his whole family 
estate. Driven to despair by so many injuries, he had recourse 
to measures which despair only could have dictated. lie en- 
tered into a secret correspondence with the emperor and the 
king of England ; and he proposed, as soon as Francis should 
have crossed the Alps, to raise an insurrection among his nu- 
merous vassals, and to introduce foreign troops into the heart 
of France. 

Happily Francis got intimation of this conspiracy before he 
left the kingdom. But, not being suflBciently convinced of the 
constable's guilt, he suffered so dangerous an enemy to escape ; 
and Bourbon, entering into the emperor's service, employed all 
the resources of his enterprising genius, and his military skill, 
to the prejudice of his sovereign and his native country. He 
took a severe revenge for all his wrongs. 

In consequence of the discovery of this plot, and the escape 
of the powei'ful conspirator, Francis relinquished his intention 
of leading his army in person into Italy. He was ignorant 
how far the infection had spread among his subjects, and afraid 
that his absence might encourage them to make some desperate 
attack in favour of a man so much beloved. He did not, how- 
ever, abandon his design on the duchy of Milan ; but sent for- 
ward, in order to subdue it, an army of thirty thousand men, 
under the command of Admiral Bonnivet. Collona, who was in- 
trusted with the defence of that duchy, was in no condition to 
resist such a force ; and the city of Milan, on which the whole 
territory depends, must have fallen into the hands of the French, 
had not Bonnivet, who possessed none of the talents of a gene- 
ral, wasted his time in frivolous enterprises, till the inhabitants 
recovered from their consternation. The imperial army was 
reinforced, Colonna died, and Lannoy, viceroy of Naples, suc- 
ceeded him in the command, (a. D. 1524.) But the military 
operations were chiefly conducted by the duke of Bourbon and 
the marquis de Pescara, the two greatest generals of their age. 
Bonnivet, destitute of the talents necessary to oppose such able 
commanders, was reduced, after various movements and en- 
counters, to the necessity of attempting a retreat into France, 
lie was pursued by the imperial generals, and routed at Bia- 
wrassa. 



CONSPIRACY OF BOURBON AND DEATH OF BAYARD. 77 

Here fell the chevalier Bayard, whose contempt of the art8 
of courts prevented him from ever rising to the chief command, 
but who was always called, in times of real danger, to the posts 
of difficulty and importance. Bonnivet being wounded, the 
conduct of the rear was committed to Bayard. He put himself 
at the head of the heavy-armed cavalry, and animating them by 
his presence and example, to sustain the whole shock of the Im- 
perial army, he gained time for the body of his countrymen to 
make good their retreat. But in that service he received a 
mortal wound ; and being unable any longer to continue on 
horseback, he ordered one of his attendants to place him under 
a tree, where he calmly waited the approach of death. In this 
situation he was found by Bourbon, who led the van of the Im- 
perialists, and expressed much sorrow for his fate. " Pity not 
me !" cried the high-minded chevalier : " I die, as a man of 
honour ought, in the discharge of my duty ; but pity those 
who fight against their king, their country, and their oath." 




a 2 



78 



mCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




SURKENDER OF FRANCIS I. 



BATTLE OF PA VIA, AND CAPTURE OF 
FRANCIS I. 



HE emperor and his allies were less 
successful in their operations on the 
frontiers of France. They were 
baffled on all sides. And Francis, 
though stripped of his Italian do- 
minions, might still have enjoyed, 
in safety, the glory of having de- 
fended his native kingdom against 
one-half of Europe, and have bid 
defiance to all his enemies, could he 
have moderated his military ardour. 
But understanding that the king of England, discouraged 
by his former fruitless enterprises, and disgusted with the 
emperor, was making no preparations for invading Picardy, 
bis rage for the conquest of Milan returned; and he deter- 




BATTLE OF PAVIA, AND CAPTURE OF FRANCIS I. 79 

mined, notwithstanding the approach of winter, to march into 
Italy. 

The French army no sooner appeared in Piedmont, than the 
whole duchy of Milan was thrown into consternation. The 
capital opened its gates. The forces of the emperor and Sforza 
retired to Lodi : and had Francis been so fortunate as to pursue 
fchem, they must have abandoned that post, and been totally 
dispersed. But his evil genius led him to besiege Pavia, (Oct. 
28,) a town of considerable strength, well garrisoned, and de- 
fended by Antonio de Leyva, one of the bravest officers in the 
Spanish service. Every thing known to the engineers of that 
age, or which could be effected by the valour of his troops, was 
attempted in vain by the French monarch against this important 
place, during a siege of three months. In the mean time, con- 
fident of success, he had detached a considerable part of his 
army to invade the kingdom of Naples : and the main body was 
much wasted by the fatigues of the siege and the rigour of the 
season. The imperial generals had not hitherto molested him, 
but they were not idle. Pescara and Lannoy had assembled 
forces from all quarters ; and Bourbon, having pawned his jewels, 
had gone into Germany, and levied at his own expense a body 
of twelve thousand Lansquenets, (a. d. 1525.) The united army 
advanced to the relief of Pavia, now reduced to extremity for 
want of ammunition and provisions. Prudence, and the advice 
of his most experienced officers, dictated to Francis the pro- 
priety of a retreat ; but his own romantic notions of honour, 
and the opinion of Bonnivet, unhappily determined him to 
keep his post. Having said that he would take Pavia or 
perish in the attempt, he thought it ignominious to depart from 
that resolution; and he anxiously waited the approach of the 
enemy. 

The imperial generals found the French so strongly intrenched 
that they hesitated long before they ventured to attack them. 
But the necessities of the besieged, and the murmurs of their own 
troops, obliged them at last to put every thing to hazard. Never 
did armies engage with greater ardour, or with a higher opinion 
of the battle they were going to fight, (Feb. 24 ;) never were men 
more strongly animated with personal emulation, national antipa- 
thy, mutual resentment, and all the passions which inspire obsti- 
nate bravery. The first efforts of the French valour made the 



so INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

firmest battalions of tlie Imperialists give ground; but the fortune 
of the day was soon changed. The Swiss troops, in the service 
of France, unmindful of their national honour, shamefully de- 
serted their post. Pescara fell upon the French cavalry with 
the Imperial horse, intermingled with a considerable number of 
Spanish foot, armed with the heavy muskets then in use, and 
broke that formidable body ; while Leyva, sallying out with his 
garrison, during the heat of action, made a furious assault on 
the enemy's rear, and threw every thing into confusion. The 
rout became general. But Francis himself, surrounded by a 
brave nobility, many of whom fell by his side, long sustained the 
combat. His horse being killed under him, he fought on foot, 
undistinguished but by his valour, and killed seven men with his 
own hand. At last he was observed by Pomperant, a French 
gentleman, who had followed the fortunes of Bourbon, and who 
now saved the life of his sovereign, ready to sink beneath an 
enraged soldiery. By his persuasion, Francis was prevailed 
upon to surrender ; yet he obstinately refused, imminent as the 
danger was, to deliver up his sword to Bourbon. Lannoy re- 
ceived it. But Bourbon had the cruel satisfaction of exulting 
over his sovereign's distress, and of repaying, from revenge, the 
insults offered by jealousy. 

This victory and the captivity of Francis filled all Europe 
with alarm. Almost the whole French army was cut off: Milan 
was immediately abandoned ; and in a few weeks not a French- 
man was left in Italy. The power of the emperor, and still 
more his ambition, became the object of universal terror : and 
resolutions were everywhere taken to set bounds to it. Mean- 
while Francis, deeply impressed with a sense of his misfortune, 
wrote to his mother Louisa, whom he had left regent of the king- 
dom, the following short but expressive letter: "All is lost but 
honour!" 

The same courier that delivered this letter carried also de- 
spatches to Charles, who received the news of the signal and 
unexpected success which had crowned his arms with the most 
hypocritical moderation. He would not suffer any public re- 
joicings to be made on account of it ; and said he only valued 
it, as it would prove the occasion of restoring peace to Chris- 
tendom. Louisa, however, did not trust to those appearances. 
Instead of giving herself up to such lamentations as were natural 



BATTLE OF PAVIA, AND CAPiJRE OP FRANCIS I. 



81 



to a "woman remarkable for maternal tenderness, she discovered 
all the foresight and exerted all the activity of a consummate 
politician. She took every possible measure for putting the 
kingdom in a posture of defence, while she employed all her 
address to appease the resentment and to gain the friendship of 
England ; and a ray of comfort from that quarter soon broke 
in upon the French affairs. 




INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




LIBERATION OF FRANCIS. 



•EANWHILE Francis was rigorously con- 
fined ; and hard conditions being proposed to 
him as the price of his liberty, he drew his 
dagger, and pointing it at his breast, cried, 
" 'Twere better that a king should die thus !" 
But flattering himself, when he grew cool, that 
such propositions could not come directly from 
Charles, he desired that he might be removed to Spain, where 
the emperor then resided. His request was complied with ; but 
he languished long before he could obtain a sight of his con- 




LIBERATION OF FRANCIS. BS 

queror. At last he was favoured with a visit ; and the emperor, 
dreading a general combination against him, or that Francis, if 
driven to despair, might, as he threatened, resign his crown 
to the dauphin, agreed to abate somewhat of his former de- 
mands. A treaty was accordingly concluded at Madrid, (a. d. 
1526,) in consequence of which Francis obtained his liberty. 
The chief article in this treaty was, that Burgundy should be 
restored to Charles as the rightful inheritance of his ancestors, 
and that Francis's two eldest sons should be immediately delivered 
up as hostages for the performance of the conditions stipulated. 
The exchange of the captive monarch for his children was made 
on the frontiers of France and Spain. And the moment that 
Francis entered his own dominions, he mounted a Turkish horse, 
and putting it' to its speed, waved his hand, and cried aloud 
several times, "I am yet a king ! I am yet a king !" 

The reputation of the French monarch, however, would have 
stood in a fairer light had he died a captive ; for the unhappy 
situation of his affairs, delicate as his notions of honour appear 
to have been, led him henceforth to act a part very disadvan- 
tageous to his moral character. He never meant to execute 
the treaty of Madrid : he had even left a protest in the hands 
of notaries, before he signed it, that his consent should be con- 
sidered as an involuntary deed, and be deemed null and void. 
Accordingly, as soon as he arrived in France, he assembled the 
states of Burgundy, who protested against the article relative 
to their province ; and when the imperial ambassadors urged 
the immediate execution of the treaty, the king replied that he 
would rigorously perform the articles relative to himself, but in 
those affecting the French monarchy he must be directed by the 
sense of the nation. He made the highest acknowledgments 
to the king of England for his friendly interposition, and 
offered to be entirely guided by his counsels. 




84 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



DEATH OF BOURBON AND SACKING OF ROME. 



A HARLES and his ministers now saw 

J';) that they were overreached in those 

"^ ^" very arts of negotiation in which 




ij they so much excelled, while the Italian 
states observed with pleasure that Francis 
was resolved to evade the execution of a 
treaty which they considered as dangerous 
to the liberties of Europe. Clement VII. absolved him from 
the oath which he had taken at Madrid ; and the kings of 
France and England, the Pope, the Swiss, the Venetians, the 
Florentines, and the Milanese, entered into an alliance, to 
which they gave the name of the Holy League, because his 
holiness was at the head of it, in order to oblige the emperor to 
deliver up Francis's two sons on the payment of a reasonable 
ransom, and to re-establish Sforza in the quiet possession of the 
duchy of Milan. 

In consequence of this league, the confederate army took 
the field, and Italy became once more the scene of war. But 
Francis, who it was expected would infuse spirit and vigour 
into the whole body, had gone through such a scene of distress 
that he was become difl&dent of his talents and distrustful of 
his fortune. He had flattered himself that the dread alone of 
such a confederacy would induce Charles to listen to what was 
equitable, and therefore neglected to send sufficient reinforce- 
ments to his allies in Italy. Meantime the duke of Bourbon, 
who commanded the Imperialists, overran the whole duchy of 
Milan, of which the emperor had promised him the investiture ; 
and his troops beginning to mutiny for want of pay, he boldly 
led them to Rome, (a. d. 1527,) in spite of every obstacle, by 
offering to their avidity the rich spoils of that ancient capital. 
Nor did he deceive them : for although he himself was slain 



DEATH OF BOURBON AND SACKING OF ROME. 85 

wliil« encouraging their efforts by his brave example, in plant- 
ing "with his own hands a scaling-ladder against the walls, they, 
more enraged than discouraged by that misfortune, mounted to 
the assault with the greatest ardour ; and, entering the city 
sword in hand, pillaged it for many days, and made it a scene 
of horrid carnage and abominable lust. 

Never did Rome experience in any age so many calamities, 
not even from the barbarians, by whom she was successively 
subdued — from the followers of Alaric, Genseric, or Odoacer, 
as now from the subjects of a Christian and Catholic monarch. 
Whatever was respectable in modesty or sacred in religion 
seemed only the more to provoke the rage of the soldiery. 
Virgins suffered violation in the arms of their mothers, and 
upon those altars to which they had fled for safety. Venerable 
prelates, after being exposed to every indignity, and enduring 
every torture, were thrown into dungeons, and menaced with 
the most cruel deaths, in order to make them reveal their se- 
cret treasures. Clement himself, who had taken refuge in the 
castle of St. Angelo, was obliged to surrender at discretion, 
and found that his sacred character could neither procure him 
liberty nor respect. He was doomed to close confinement until 
he should pay an enormous ransom, imposed by the victorious 
army, and surrender to the emperor all the places of strength 
belonging to the apostolic see. 

Charles received the news of this extraordinary event with 
equal surprise and pleasure ; but, in order to conceal his joy 
from his Spanish subjects, who were filled with horror at the 
insult offered to the sovereign pontiff, and to lessen the indig- 
nation of the other powers of Europe, he expressed the deepest 
sorrow for the success of his arms. He put himself and his 
whole court into mourning, stopped the rejoicings for the birth 
of his son Philip, and ordered prayers to be put up in all the 
churches of Spain for the liberation of the pope, which he 
could immediately have procured by a letter to his generals. 

The concern expressed by Henry and Francis, for the ca- 
lamity of their ally, was more sincere. Alarmed at the progress 
of the Imperial arms, they had, even before the sacking of 
Rome, entered into a closer alliance, and proposed to invade 
the Low Countries with a powerful army ; but no sooner did 
they hear of Clement's captivity than they changed, by a new 

H 



86 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



treaty, the scene of the projected war from the Netherlands to 
Italy, and resolved to take the most vigorous measui-es for re- 
storing his holiness to liberty. Henry, however, contributed 
only money. A French army crossed the Alps, under the com- 
mand of Mareschal Lautrec ; Clement obtained his freedom, 
and war was, for a time, carried on by the confederates with 
success, (a. d. 1528.) But the death of Lautrec, and the re- 
volt of Andrew Doria, a celebrated Genoese admiral, at that 
time in the service of France, totally changed the face of af- 
fairs. He obliged the French garrison in Genoa to surrender, 
and restore the liberties of his country. The French army 
was utterly ruined before Naples; and Francis, discouraged, 
and almost exhausted by so many unsuccessful enterprises, 
began at length to think of peace, and of obtaining the release 
of his sons by concessions, instead of the terror of his arms. 




EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE STATES OF BARBAKY. 87 




EXPEDITIONS OF CHARLES V. AGAINST THE 
STATES OF BARBARY. 

I HILE these things were transacting, Charlea 
undertook an expedition against the pirati- 
cal states of Africa. Barbary, or that part 
of the African continent which lies along 
the coast of the Mediterranean sea, was 
then nearly in the same condition it is at 
present. Morocco, Algiers, and Tunis were its principal go- 
vernments ; and the last two were nests of pirates. Barbarossa, 
a famous corsair, had succeeded his brother in the kingdom of 
Algiers, which he formerly assisted him to usurp. He regu- 
lated with much prudence the interior police of his kingdom, 
carried on his piracies with great vigour, and extended his con- 
quests on the continent of Africa; but perceiving that the natives 
submitted to his government with impatience, and fearing that 
his continual depredations might draw upon him a general com- 
bination of the Christian powers, he put his dominions under 
the protection of the Turkish emperor. Solyman, flattered by 
such an act of submission, and charmed by the boldness of the 
man, offered him the command of the Ottoman fleet. Proud of 
this distinction, Barbarossa repaired to Constantinople, and 
made use of his influence with his sultan to extend his own do- 
minions. Partly by force, partly by treachery, he usurped the 
kingdom of Tunis ; and being now possessed of greater power, 
he carried on his depredations against the Christian states with 
more destructive violence than ever. 

Daily complaints of the piracies and ravages committed by 
the galleys of Barbarossa were brought to the emperor by his 
subjects, both in Spain and Italy ; and all Christendom seemed 
to look up to Charles, as its greatest and most fortunate prince, 
for relief from this new and odious species of oppression. At 



88 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

the same time Muley Hascen, the exiled king of Tunis, finding 
none of the African princes able or willing to support him in 
recovering his throne, applied to the victorious Charles for as- 
sistance against the usurper. Equally desirous of delivering 
his dominions from the dangerous neighbourhood of Barbarossa, 
of appearing as the protector of an unfortunate prince, and of 
acquiring the glory annexed in that age to every expedition 
against the Mohammedans, the emperor readily concluded a treaty 
with Muley Hascen, and set sail for Tunis with a formidable 
armament. 

The Goletta, a strong fortress on an island in the bay of 
Tunis, and the key of the capital, planted with three hundred 
pieces of cannon, was taken by storm, (July 25, 1535,) together 
with all Barbarossa's fleet. He was defeated in a pitched battle ; 
and ten thousand Christian slaves having knocked off their fet- 
ters, and made themselves masters of the citadel, Tunis offered 
to surrender at discretion. But while Charles was deliberating 
on the means of preserving the lives of the inhabitants, his 
troops, fearing that they would be deprived of the booty which 
they had expected, broke suddenly into the town and pillaged 
and massacred without distinction. Thirty thousand persons 
perished by the sword, and ten thousand were made prisoners. 
The sceptre, drenched in blood, was restored to Muley Hascen, 
on condition that he should acknowledge himself a vassal of the 
crown of Spain, put into the emperor's hands all the fortified 
seaports in the kingdom of Tunis, and pay annually twelve 
thousand crowns for the subsistence of a Spanish garrison in 
the Goletta. These points being settled, and twenty thousand 
Christian slaves freed from bondage, either by arms or by treaty, 
Charles returned to Europe, where his presence was become 
necessary ; while Barbarossa, who had retired to Bona, reco- 
vered new strength, and again became the tyrant of the ocean. 

Algiers, after the taking of Tunis, became the common recep- 
tacle of all the Barbary corsairs ; and from the time that Barba- 
rossa, as captain-basha, commanded the Turkish fleet, it had 
been governed by Hascen Aga, a renegade eunuch, who outdid, 
if possible, his master in boldness and cruelty. The commerce 
of the Mediterranean was greatly interrupted by his galleys ; 
and such frequent alarms were given to the coasts of Spain, 
that there was a necessity for erecting watch-towers at certain 



1 


11 




pi ill 


lil 


m 


'< 








-;!' 




i|i;llilli# 



EXPEDITIONS AGAINST THE STATES OF BARBARY. 93 

distances, and of keeping a guard constantly employed in order 
to descry the approach of his squadrons, and to protect the in- 
habitants from the depredations of the rapacious ruflBans with 
■which they were manned. 

Charles, before he left Spain, had resolved to humble this 
daring corsair, and to exterminate the lawless crew who had so 
lonff infested the ocean. With this view he had ordered a fleet 
and army to assemble on the coast of Italy ; and although the 
autumn was now far advanced, he obstinately persisted in his 
purpose, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Andrew Doria, 
who conjured him not to expose so noble an armament to almost 
inevitable destruction, by venturing at so late a season to ap- 
proach the stormy coast of Algiers. Doria's words proved pro- 
phetical. 

No sooner had the emperor landed in Barbary, (1541,) than a 
frightful hurricane arose, scattered his fleet, and dashed great 
part of it in pieces ; while he and his land forces were exposed 
to all the fury of the elements, in an enemy's country, without 
a hut or a tent to shelter them, or so much as a spot of firm 
ground on which they could rest their wearied bodies. In this 
calamitous situation, cold and wet, they continued during seve- 
ral days, harassed at the same time by the attacks of the Alge- 
rines. At last, Doria happily being able to assemble the remains 
of the fleet, Charles was glad to re-embark, after having lost the 
greater part of his army, by the inclemency of the weather, 
famine, or the sword of the enemy. And the men who yet sur- 
vived were doomed to encounter new miseries in their return ; 
the fleet being scattered by a fresh storm, and the ships obliged 
to take shelter, separately, in those parts of Spain or Italy they 
could first rea(?h. 




92 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




HENRT VIII. 



THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 




prince had ever ascended the throne of 
England with more advantages than Henry 
VIII. (a. d. 1509.) His title to the crown 
was undisputed ; his treasury was full ; his 
subjects were in tranquillity; and the vigour 
and comeliness of his person, his freedom of 
manner, his love of show, and his dexterity 
in every manly exercise, rendered his accession highly popular, 
while his proficiency in literature and his reputation for talents 
made his character respectable. Every thing seemed to prog- 
nosticate a happy and prosperous reign. 

He had been affianced during his father's lifetime to the 
Infanta Catharine, his brother's widow ; and, notwithstanding 
some scruples on that step, he now agreed that their nuptials 
should be celebrated. We shall afterwards have occasion to 
observe the extraordinary effects of this marriage, and of the 
king's remorse, either real or pretended. 



THE KEFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 93 

Some princes have been their own ministers, but almost every 
one has had eithei» a minister or a favourite : Wolsey was both 
to Henry. Being admitted to the youthful monarch's plea- 
sures, he took the lead in every jovial conversation, and pro- 
moted, notwithstanding his religious habit, all that frolic and 
gayety which he found to be agreeable to the age and inclina- 
tions of the king. During the intervals of amusement, he in- 
troduced business and state affairs, and insinuated those max- 
ims of conduct which he was desirous his master should pursue. 
By these means he insensibly acquired that absolute ascendant 
over Henry which distinguished his administration ; and the 
people saw, with concern, every day new instances of his uncon- 
trolled authority. 

The duke of Buckingham, lord high constable of England, the 
first nobleman in the kingdom both in family and fortune, hav- 
ing wantonly given disgust to Wolsey, soon found reason to 
repent his imprudence. He was descended by a female from 
the duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Edward III., and being 
infatuated with judicial astrology, he consulted with a Carthu- 
sian friar, named Hopkins, who flattered him with the hope of 
ascending one day the English throne. He had even been so 
unguarded as to utter some expressions against the king's life. 
The cardinal made these the grounds of an impeachment ; and 
although Buckingham's threats seem to have proceeded more 
from indiscretion than deliberate malice, he was brought to 
trial, condemned, and executed, (a. d. 1521.) The office of 
high constable, which this nobleman inherited from the Bohuns, 
earls of Hereford, being forfeited by his attainder, was never 
afterward revived in England. 

The next memorable event in the domestic history of this 
reign, is the divorce of Queen Catharine. The king's scruples 
in regard to the lawfulness of his marriage increased with the 
decay of the queen's beauty. She had borne him several chil- 
dren, but they were all dead except the princess Mary ; and 
Henry was passionately fond of male issue. He consulted his 
confessor, the bishop of Lincoln, on the legality of marrying a 
brother's widow, and found that prelate possessed with some 
doubts and difficulties. He next proceeded to examine the 
question by his own learning and study, being himself a gr(/at 
divine and casuist ; and having had recourse to the works of 



94 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Ms oracle, Thomas Aquinas, he discovered that this celebrated 
doctor had expressly declared against the lawfulness of such 
marriages. The archbishop of Canterbury was now applied to, 
and desired to consult his brethren. All the prelates in Eng- 
land, except Fisher, bishop of Rochester, unanimously declared 
under their hand and seal, that they deemed the king's marriage 
unlawful, (a. d. 1527.) Wolsey also fortified his master's 
scruples, and the bright eyes of Anne Boleyn, maid of ho- 
nour to the queen, carried home every argument to the heart of 
Henry more forcibly than even the suggestions of that powerful 
favourite. 

This young lady was daughter of Sir Thomas Boleyn, who had 
been employed by Henry in several embassies, and was allied 
to all the chief nobility in the kingdom. She had been carried 
over to Paris in early youth, by the king's sister, when espoused 
to Louis XII. of France; and the graces of her mind, no less 
than the beauty of her person, had distinguished her even in 
that polished court. The time at which she returned to Eng- 
land is not certainly known ; but it appears to have been after 
the king had entertained doubts concerning the lawfulness of 
his marriage. She immediately caught the roving and amorous 
eye of Henry ; and as her virtue and modesty left him no hope 
of licentious indulgences, he resolved to raise her to the throne, 
which her accomplishments, both natural and acquired, seemed 
equally fitted to adorn. 

But many bars were yet in the way of Henry's wishes. It 
was not only necessary to obtain a divorce from the pope, but a 
revocation of the bull which had been granted for his marriage 
with Catharine, before he could marry Anne : and he had tc 
combat all the interest of the emperor, whose aunt he was going 
to degrade. The king of England, however, did not despair of 
success. He was in high favour with the court of Rome, and 
he deserved to be so. He had not only opposed the progress 
of the Lutheran tenets, by all the influence which his extensive 
and almost absolute authority conferred upon him, but he had 
even written a book against them : a performance in itself not 
contemptible, and which gave so much pleasure to Leo X. that 
he conferred upon Henry the title of Defender of the Faith. 
Sensible, therefore, of his importance, as the chief pillar of the 
church, at a time when it stood in much need of support, he 



THE REFORMATION IN ENGI4AND 97 

confidently applied to Clement VII., the reigning pontiff, for a 
dissolution of his marriage with Catharine. 

The pope seemed at first favourable to Henry's inclinations ; 
but his dread of displeasing the emperor, whose prisoner he had 
lately been, prevented him from coming to any fixed determina- 
tion, (a. d. 1529.) He at last, however, empowered Campeggic 
and Wolsey, his two legates in England, to try the validity of 
the king's marriage. They accordingly opened their court at 
London, and proceeded to the examination of the matter. The 
first point which came before them, and that which Henry 
wanted chiefly to establish, was Arthur's consummation of his 
marriage with Catharine ; and although the queen protested 
that her virgin honour was yet untainted when the king received 
her into his bed, and even appealed to his grace (the title then 
taken by English kings) for the truth of her asseveration, stronger 
proofs than were produced could not be expected of such a fact, 
after so long an interval. But when the business seemed draw- 
ing to a close, and while Henry was in anxious expectation of 
a sentence in his favour, all his hopes were suddenly blasted. 
Campeggio, on the most frivolous pretences, prorogued the 
court ; and Clement, at the intercession of the emperor, revoked 
the cause soon after to Rome. 

This finesse occasioned the fall of Wolsey. Anne Boleyn 
imputed to him the failure of her expectations, and Henry, who 
entertained the highest opinion of the cardinal's capacity, 
ascribed his miscarriage in the present undertaking, not to 
misfortune or mistake, but to the malignity or infidelity of that 
minister. The great seal was taken from him, and given to Sir 
Thomas More, a man of learning, virtue, and capacity. He 
was indicted in the Star-Chamber ; his lands and goods were 
declared forfeited ; his houses and furniture were seized ; he 
was pronounced without the protection of the laws, and his per- 
son liable to be committed to custody. The king's heart, how- 
ever, relented, and the prosecution was carried no farther ; but 
the cardinal was ordered to remove from court, and his final 
ruin was hanging over him. 

The parliament laid hold of the present opportunity to pass 
several bills, restraining the impositions of the clergy ; and 
Henry was not displeased that the pope and his whole militia 
should be made sensible of their dependence upon him, and of 



98 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

the willingness of his subjects, if he was so disposed, to reduce 
the power and privileges of ecclesiastics. Amid the anxieties 
with which he was agitated, he was often tempted to break off 
all connection with Rome : and Anne Boleyn used every in- 
sinuation, in order to make him proceed to extremities with 
Clement ; both as the readiest and surest means of her exalta- 
tion to the royal dignity, and of spreading the new doctrines, 
in which she had been initiated under the duchess of Alengon, 
a warm friend to the Reformation. But Henry, notwithstand- 
ing these inducements, had still many reasons to desire a good 
agreement with the sovereign pontiff. Having been educated 
in a superstitious veneration for the holy see, he dreaded the 
reproach of heresy ; and he abhorred all alliance with the Lu- 
therans, the chief opponents of the papal power, because 
Luther, their apostle, had handled him roughly, in an answei 
to his book in defence of the Romish communion. 

While Henry was fluctuating between these contrary opi- 
nions, two of his courtiers fell accidentally, one evening, into 
company with Dr. Thomas Cranmer, fellow of Jesus College, in 
Cambridge, a man distinguished by his learning, but still more 
by his candour ; and, as the affair of the divorce became the 
subject of conversation, he observed, that the best way, either 
to quiet the king's conscience or obtain the pope's consent, 
would be to consult all the universities in Europe with regard 
to that controverted point, (a. d. 1530.) When Henry was 
informed of this proposal, he was delighted with it, and swore 
with great violence, " By God ! Cranmer has got the right sow 
by the ear." The doctor was immediately sent for, and taken 
into favour, the universities were consulted, according to his 
advice, and all of them declared the king's marriage invalid. 

Clement, however, lying still under the influence of the em- 
peror, continued inflexible ; and, as Henry was sensible that 
the extremities to which he was pushed, both against the pope 
and the ecclesiastical order, must be disagreeable to Wolsey, 
whose opposition he dreaded, he renewed the prosecution against 
his ancient favourite. 

The cardinal, after his disgrace, had remained for some time 
at Richmond ; but, being ordered to remove to his see of York, 
he took up his residence at Cawood, in Yorkshire, where he 
rendered himself extremely popular in the neighbourhood by 



THE REFORMATION I]N ENGLAND. 99 

his affability and hospitality. In this retreat he lived, when 
the earl of Northumberland received orders to arrest him for 
high treason, and conduct him to London as a prelude to his 
trial. On his journey he was seized with a disorder, which 
turned into a dysentery ; and it was with much difficulty that 
he was able to reach Leicester abbey. " I am come to lay my 
bones among you," said Wolsey to the abbot and monks, who 
came out to receive him : and he immediately took to his bed, 
whence he never rose more. " Oh ! had I but served my 
God," cried he, a little before he expired, "as diligently as I 
have served my king, he would not have deserted me in my 
gray hairs." His treason, indeed, seems rather to have been 
against the people than the prince, or even the state ; for al- 
though the violence and obstinacy of Henry's character ought 
perhaps to apologize for many of the cardinal's public measures, 
his continued extortions upon the subject, by the most iniqui- 
tous methods, in what he called his Legantine court, admit of 
no alleviation. 

Thus freed from a person whom he considered as an obstacle 
in the way of his inclinations, and supported by the opinion 
of the learned in the step which he intended to take, Henry 
ordered a parliament, together with a convocation, to meet ; in 
which he was acknowledged " the Protector and supreme Head 
of the Church and Clergy of England." (a. d. 1531.) And 
being now fully determined in his own mind relative to a matter 
which had long engaged his thoughts, and resolved to adminis- 
ter ecclesiastical affairs without having farther recourse to 
Rome, (a. d. 1532,) as well as to abide all consequences, he 
privately celebrated his marriage with Anne Boleyn, whom he 
had previously created marchioness of Pembroke. 

Cranmer, now become archbishop of Canterbury, annulled 
soon after the king's marriage with Catharine, (a step which 
ought to have preceded his second nuptials,) and ratified that 
with Anne, who was publicly crowned queen, with all the pomp 
and dignity suited to such a ceremony. And, to complete the 
satisfaction of Henry on the conclusion of this troublesome 
business, the queen was safely delivered of a daughter, (a. d. 
1533,) who received the name of Elizabeth, and whom we shall 
afterwards see swaying the English sceptre with equal glory to 
herself and happiness to her people. 



100 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

When intelligence was conveyed to Rome of these transac- 
tions, the conclave was all in a rage, and the pope was urged 
by the cardinals of the imperial faction to dart his spiritual 
thunders against Henry. But Clement was still unwilling to 
proceed to extremities : he only declared Cranmer's sentence 
null, and threatened the king with excommunication, if he did 
not put things in their former condition, before a day named. 
In the mean time Henry was prevailed upon, by the mediation 
of the king of France, to submit his cause to the Roman con- 
sistory, provided the cardinals of the Imperial faction were ex- 
cluded from it. The pope consented, and promised that, if the 
king would sign a written agreement to this purpose, his de- 
mands should be fully complied with. But on what slight inci- 
.dents often depend the greatest events ! The courier appointed 
to carry the king's written promise was detained beyond the 
.(lay fixed; news arrived at Rome that a libel had been pub- 
lished in London against the holy see, and a farce acted before 
ihe king in derision of the apostolic body. The pope and cardinals 
-entered into the consistory inflamed with rage ; the marriage 
between Henry and Catharine was pronounced valid ; the king 
was declared excommunicated if he refused to adhere to it, and 
the rupture with England was rendered final. 

The English parliament, assembled soon after this decision 
of the court of Rome, (a. d. 1534,) conferred on the king the 
title of " The onlj/ supreme Head of the Church of England 
up@n Uarth," as they had already invested him with all the 
real power belonging to it ; a measure of the utmost conse- 
quence to the kingdom, whether considered in a civil or eccle- 
siastical view, and which forms a memorable era in their consti- 
tution« The legislature, by thus acknowledging the king's 
supremacy in ecclesiastical matters, and uniting the spiritual 
with the civil power, introduced greater simplicity into govern- 
ment, and prevented all future disputes about the limits of con- 
tending jurisdictions. A door was also opened for checking 
the exorbitances of superstition, and breaking those shackles 
by which human reason, policy, and industry had so long been 
circumscribed ; for, as a profound historian has justly observed, 
the prince, being head of the religious as well as of the tem- 
poral jurisdiction of the kingdom, though he might sometimes 
be tempted to employ the former as an engine of government, 



,ff^^- 




C R A N M G B. 



THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. 103 

could have no interest, like the Roman pontiff, in encouraging 
its usurpations. 

But England, though thus happily released from the oppres- 
sive jurisdiction of the pope, was far from enjoying religious 
freedom. Liberty of conscience was, if possible, more confined 
than ever. Henry not only retained his aversion against Lu- 
ther and his doctrines, but so many of his early prejudices 
hung about him, that the idea of heresy still filled him with 
horror. Separate as he stood from the Catholic church, he 
continued to value himself on maintaining its dogmas, and on 
guarding with fire and sword the imaginary purity of his specu- 
lative opinions. All who denied the king's supremacy, the 
legitimacy of his daughter Elizabeth, or who embraced the 
tenets of the reformers, were equally the objects of his ven- 
geance. Among the latter were many unhappy persons, who 
had greedily imbibed the Lutheran doctrines, during Henry's 
quarrel with Rome, in hopes of a total change of worship, and 
who, having gone too far to recede, fell martyrs to their new 
faith. Among the former were Fisher, bishop of Rochester, 
and Sir Thomas More, late chancellor, who refused to acknow- 
ledge the king's supremacy, and died upon the scafibld with 
heroic constancy, (a. d. 1535.) More, who was a man of a 
gay humour, retained even his facetiousness to the last. When 
he laid his head on the block, and saw the executioner ready 
with his weapon, " Stay, friend," said he, " till I put aside my 
beard; for," added he, "it never committed treason." What 
pity, and what an instance of the inconsistency of human na- 
ture, that the man who could make a jest of death, should 
make a matter of conscience of the pope's supremacy ! 

Although Henry thus punished both Protestants and Catho- 
lics, his most dangerous enemies, he was sensible, were the 
zealous adherents to the ancient religion, and more especially 
the monks, who, having their immediate dependence on the 
Roman pontiff, apprehended their own ruin to be the certain 
consequence of abolishing his authority in England. The king 
therefore determined to suppress the monasteries, as so many 
nurseries of rebellion, as well as of idleness, superstition, and 
folly, and to put himself in possession of their ample revenues. 
In order to effectuate this robbery with some colour of justice, 
he appointed commissioners to visit all religious houses ; and 



lv;4 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



these men, acquainted with the king's design, brought reports, 
whether true or false, of such frightful disorders, lewdness, 
ignorance, priestcraft, and unnatural lusts, as filled the nation 
with horror against institutions held sacred by their ancestors, 
and lately objects of the most profound veneration. The lesser 
monasteries, said to have been the most corrupted, to the num- 
ber of three hundred and seventy-six, were at once suppressed 
by parliament, (a. d. 1536 ;) and their revenues, goods, chat- 
tels, and plate were granted to the king. 





Lii>t JAMS a&£r. 



ACCESSION OF EDWARD VI. 



107 




THE CBOWN OFFERED TO LADY JANB QRET. 



ACCESSION OF EDWARD VI. 




ENRY VIII. died January 28, 154T, leav- 
ing the throne to his only son, a boy of 
ten years of age, who was immediately 
proclaimed king under the title of Ed- 
ward VI. The duke of Somerset, ma- 
ternal uncle to the young king, became 
supreme ruler, under the title of Protector, and continued to 
maintain the Protestant doctrines. Under this reign, the church 
of England assumed its present form, and the Book of Common 
Prayer was composed nearly as it now exists. Somerset being 
resolved to effect, if possible, the match between Edward VI. 
and Mary of Scotland, invaded that country in autumn 1547, 
and met was at Musselburgh by a large army under the gover- 
nor, the earl of Arran. Though the Scotch were animated by 
bitter animosity against the English, against their religion, and 
against the object of their expedition, they did not fight with 
their usual resolution, but were defeated, and pursued with great 
slaughter. Finding them still obstinate in refusing tc give up 
their queen, Somerset laid waste a great part of the country, 
and then retired. Previous to this period. Cardinal Beaton had 
been assassinated by private enemies : but the Scotch were en- 
couraged to persevere by the court of France, to which they 
now sent the young queen for protection. 



108 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTOHY. 

In the reign of Edward VI. the government was conducteci 
mildly, until the protector Somerset was degraded from hin 
authority by the rising influence of Dudley, duke of Northum- 
berland, who caused him soon after to be tried and executed. 
Northumberland, who was secretly a Roman Catholic, was not 
so mild or popular a ruler. Yet throughout the whole reign of 
Edward VI., which was terminated by his death on the 6th of 
July, 1553, at the early age of sixteen, no religious party was 
persecuted, except those who denied the fundamental doctrines 
of the Christian religion. It would have been well for the ho- 
nour of a church which has produced many great men, and to 
which the modern world is indebted for the very existence of 
Christianity, if it had not been tempted after this period to com- 
mence a very different course of action. The crown now be- 
longed by birthright to Mary, the eldest daughter of Henry 
VIIL, who was a zealous Catholic. Northumberland, however, 
assuming the illegitimacy of that princess and her sister Eliza- 
beth, set up as queen the Lady Jane Grey, who was descended 
from a younger sister of king Henry, and who had been mar- 
ried to a son of the duke of Northumberland. Lady Jane was 
the most beautiful, most intelligent, and most amiable of all the 
females who appear in the history of England. Though only 
seventeen, she was deeply learned, and yet preserved all the 
unaffected graces of character proper to her interesting age. 
Unfortunately, her father-in-law Northumberland was so much 
disliked that the Catholics were enabled to displace her from 
the throne in eight days, and set up in her stead the princess 
Mary. Northumberland, Lady Jane, and her husband, Guilford 
Lord Dudley, were all beheaded by that savage princess, who 
soon after took steps for restoring the Catholic religion, and 
married Philip II., king of Spain, in order to strengthen her- 
self against the Protestant interest. Mary experienced some 
resistance from her Protestant subjects, and being under great 
suspicion of her sister Elizabeth, who professed the reformed 
faith, but took no part against her, was almost on the point of 
ordering her to execution also. As soon as she had replaced the 
Catholic system, and found herself in possession of suflScient 
power, she began that career of persecution which has rendered 
her name so infamous. 




GARDINER. 



PERSECUTIONS IN QUEEN MARY'S REIGN. 



Ill 



PERSECUTIONS OF THE PROTESTANTS IN 
QUEEN MARY'S REIGN. 




N consequence of her reconciliation with 
the see of Rome, Mary had recourse to 
the punishment by fire, that frightful 
expedient of superstition, for extend- 
ing her empire, and preserving her do- 
minion. The mild counsels of Cardinal 
Pole, who was inclined to toleration, 
were overruled by Gardiner and Bon- 
ner, and many persons of all conditions, 
ages, and sexes were committed to the 
flames. The persecutors made their first attack upon Rogers, 
prebendary of St. Paul's ; a man equally distinguished by his 
piety and learning, but whose domestic situation, it was hoped, 
would bring him to compliance. He had a wife, whom he ten- 
derly loved, and ten children ; yet did he continue firm in his 
principles, and such was his serenity after condemnation, that 
the jailers, it is said, waked him from a sound sleep, when the 
hour of his execution approached. He suffered in Smithfield, 
(a. d. 1555.) Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, was condemned at 
the same time with Rogers, but sent to his own diocese to be 
punished, in ordet to strike the greater terror into his flock. 
The constancy of his death, however, had a very contrary efiect. 
It was a scene of consolation to Hooper to die in their sight, 
bearing testimony to that doctrine which he had formerly taught 
among them. He continued to exhort them, till his tongue, 
swollen by the violence of his agony, denied him utterance : and 
his words were long remembered. 

Ferrar, bishop of St. David's, also sufi"ered this terrible pun- 
ishment in his own diocese. And Ridley, bishop of London, 
and Latimer, formerly bishop of Worcester, two prelates, vene- 



112 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

rable by their years, their learning, and their piety, perished 
together in the same fire at Oxford, supporting each other's 
constancy by their mutual exhortations. Latimer, when tied to 
the stake, called to his companion, "Be of good cheer, my 
brother ! we shall this day kindle such a flame in England, as, 
i trust in God, will never be extinguished." 

Sanders, a respectable clergyman, was committed to the flames 
at Coventry. A pardon was ofi'ered him if he would recant ; 
but he rejected it with disdain, and embraced the stake, saying, 
"Welcome, cross of Christ! welcome, everlasting life !" Cran- 
mer had less courage at first. Overawed by the prospect of 
those tortures which awaited him, or overcome by the fond love 
of life, and by the flattery of artful men, who pompously repre- 
sented the dignities to which his character still entitled him, if 
he would merit them by a recantation, he agreed, in an unguarded 
hour, to subscribe to the doctrines of the papal supremacy and 
the real presence. But Mary and her council, no less perfidious 
than cruel, determined that this recantation should avail him 
nothing ; that he should acknowledge his errors in the church 
before the people, and afterward be led to execution. Whether 
Cranmer received secret intelligence of their design, or repented 
of his weakness, or both, is uncertain ; but he surprised the 
audience by a declaration very different from that which was 
expected from him. After explaining his sense of what he 
owed to God and his sovereign, "There is one miscarriage in 
my life," said he, "of which, above all others, I severely repent 
— the insincere declaration of faith to which I had the weakness 
to subscribe; but I take this opportunity of atoning for my 
error by a sincere and open recantation, and am willing to seal 
with my blood that doctrine which I firmly believe to have been 
communicated from Heaven." (a. d. 1556.) 

As his hand, he added, had erred, by betraying his heart, it 
should first be punished by a severe but just doom. He accord- 
ingly stretched out his arm, as soon as he came to the stake, to 
which he was instantly led, and without discovering, either by 
his looks or motions, the least sign of compunction, or even of 
feeling, he held his right hand in the flames till it was utterly 
consumed. His thoughts appeared to be totally occupied in re- 
flecting on his former fault; and he called aloud several times, 
"This hand has off"ended !" When it dropped off" he discovered 




QUEEN UABT. From a Painting by Holbein. 



k2 




I A T I U E £. 



PERSECUTIONS IN QUEEN MARY'S REIGN. II7 

a serenity in his countenance, as if satisfied with sacrificing to 
divine justice the instrument of his crime ; and when the fire 
attacked his body, his soul, wholly collected within itself, seemed 
fortified against every external accident, and altogether inacces- 
sible to pain. 

It would be endless to enumerate all the cruelties practised 
in England during this bigoted reign, near three hundred per- 
sons having been brought to the stake in the first rage of per- 
secution. Besides, the savage barbarity on the one hand, and 
the patient constancy on the other, are so similar in all those 
martyrdoms, that a narration, very little agreeable in itself, 
would become altogether disgusting by its uniformity. It is 
sufficient to have mentioned the sufferings of the most eminent re- 
formers, whose character and condition make such notice neces- 
sary. We shall therefore conclude this subject with observing, 
that human nature appears on no occasion so detestable, and at 
the same time so absurd, as in these religious horrors, which sink 
mankind below infernal spirits in wickedness, and beneath th« 
brutes in folly. Bishop Bonner seemed to rejoice in the tor- 
ments of the victims of persecution. He sometimes whipped 
the Protestant prisoners with his own hands, till he was tired 
with the violence of the exercise : he tore out the beard of a 
weaver, who refused to relinquish his religion ; and, in order to 
give the obstinate heretic a more sensible idea of burning, he 
held his finger to the candle, till the sinews and veins shrunk and 
burst. All these examples prove that no human depravity can 
equal revenge and cruelty, inflamed by theological hate. 




118 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




)aAELES V. AND lURRIANO SURPRISING THE MONKS WITH THEIR CURIOUS PUPPETS. 



RESIGNATION OF CHARLES V. 




'N the year 1556, an event happened which asto- 
nished all Europe, and confounded the reasonings 
of the wisest politicians. The emperor Charles V., 
though no more than fifty-six, an age when ob- 
jects of ambition operate with full force on the 
mind, and are generally pursued with the great- 
est ardour, had for some time formed the resolu- 
tion of resigning his hereditary dominions to his 
son Philip. He now determined to put it in execution. Va- 
rious have been the opinions of historians concerning a resolu- 
tion so singular and unexpected ; but the most probable seem to 
be, the disappointments which Charles had met with in his am- 
bitious hopes, and the daily decline of his health. He had 
early in life been attacked with the gout ; and the fits were 
now become so frequent and severe, that not only the vigour 
of his constitution was broken, but the faculties of his mind 



RESIGNATION OF CHARLES V. 119 

were sensibly impaired. He, therefore, judged it more decent 
to conceal his infirmities in some solitude, than to expose them 
any longer to the public eye : and, as he was unwilling to for- 
feit the fame or lose the acquisitions of his better years, by 
attempting to guide the reins of government when he was no 
longer able to hold them with steadiness, he prudently deter- 
mined to seek, in the tranquillity of retirement, that happiness 
which he had in vain pursued amid the tumults of war and the 
intrigues of state. 

In consequence of this resolution, Charles, who had already 
ceded to his son Philip the kingdom of Naples and the duchy 
of Milan, assembled the states of the Low Countries at Brus- 
sels; and seating himself, for the last time, in the chair of 
state, he explained to his subjects the reasons of his resigna- 
tion, and solemnly devolved his authority upon Philip. He re- 
counted with dignity, but without ostentation, all the great things 
which he had undertaken and performed since the commencement 
of his administration : and that enumeration gives us the highest 
idea of his activity and industry. " I have dedicated," observed 
he, "from the seventeenth year of my age, all my thoughts and 
attention to public objects, reserving no portion of my time for 
the indulgence of ease, and very little for the enjoyment of 
private pleasure. Either in a pacific or hostile manner, I have 
visited Germany nine times ; Spain six times ; France four 
times ; Italy seven times ; the Low Countries ten times ; Eng- 
land twice ; Africa as often ; and, while my health permitted 
me to discharge the duties of a sovereign, and the vigour of my 
constitution was equal in any degree to the arduous office of 
governing such extensive dominions, I never shunned labour, 
nor repined under fatigue ; but now, when my health is broken, 
and my vigour exhausted by the rage of an incurable distem- 
per, my growing infirmities admonish me to retire ; nor am I 
so fond of reigning as to retain the sceptre in an impotent hand, 
which is no longer able to protect my subjects. 

" Instead of a sovereign worn out with diseases," continued 
he, " and scarce half alive, I give you one in the prime of life, 
already accustomed to govern, and who adds to the vigour of 
youth all the attention and sagacity of maturer years." Then 
turning towards Philip, who fell on his knees and kissed his 
father's hand, «It is in your power," said Charles, "by a wise 



120 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



and virtuous administration, to justify the extraordinary proof 
which I give this day of my paternal affection, and to demon- 
strate that you are worthy of the confidence which I repose in 
you. Preserve," added he, "an inviolable regard for religion; 
maintain the Catholic faith in its purity ; let the laws of your 
country be sacred in your eyes ; encroach not on the rights of 
your people ; and, if the time should ever come when you 
shall wish to enjoy the tranquillity of private life, may you 
have a son to whom you can resign your sceptre with as much 
satisfaction as I give mine to you." A few weeks after, the 
emperor also resigned to Philip the Spanish crown, with all the 
dominions depending upon it, in the Old as well as in the New 
World ; reserving nothing to himself, out of all those vast pos- 
sessions, but an annual pension of one hundred thousand 
ducats. 

Soon after his abdication, he desired father Johanne de 
Regla to be his confessor. The good father some time refused : 
Charles said to him, « Holy father, do not be alarmed at hav- 
ing the care of the conscience of an emperor, which, for this 
last year past, five doctors of canon law and of divinity have 
undertaken to relieve." 

In his retirement at St. Just, he and Turriano amused them- 
selves with making collections of clocks and watches, and au- 
tomaton images, and in observing their different motions, and 
used to observe, with a sigh, how ill he had spent his time in 
endeavouring to make mankind think alike in religious matters, 
when he had never been able to make two watches go perfectly 
together. 





QUEEN E-LIZABETH. 



ACCESSION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 12tf 




ACCESSION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

I HEN Queen Mary's defth was announced 
to the parliament, which happened to be 
assembled at the time, the members all 
sprang from their seats ; and shouts of 
joy, and the words " God save Queen 
Elizabeth!" were heard to resound on 
every side. When the news was spread abroad, the transport 
of the people was so great that they hurried in crowds towards 
Hatfield, where Elizabeth was then residing, and escorted her 
into London. Elizabeth was then twenty-five years old. 

The new queen, from her first coming to the throne, seemed 
anxious to show an entire forgetfulness of all her former suffer- 
ings, and never testified any resentment towards those who had 
been instrumental to them. Even Sir Henry Benefield, in whose 
custody she had been for a time, and whom she had found a 
severe jailer, experienced from her no other punishment or re- 
buke, but that of her telling him that he should have the custody 
of any state prisoner whom she wished to be treated with pecu- 
liar severity. The cruel Bonner was the only one of her sister's 
ministers to whom she showed a marked dislike. She turned 
from him with horror, and would never speak to him nor look at 
him. 

The first great anxiety of all the Protestant part of the nation 
was to have a settlement of the afiairs of the church. In this 
important business Elizabeth proceeded with great prudence and 
caution, and yet with so much determination and steadiness 
that she soon replaced every thing in the state it had been at 
her brother's death ; and all without one drop of blood being 
spilt, or a single estate confiscated. Bonner alone, for refusing 
to acknowledge her supremacy, was punished by being im- 
prisoned for life. 

Philip, as soon as he heard of Queen Mary's death, proposed 



124 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

himself to her sister in marriage. Elizabeth never for a mo- 
ment thought of consenting to such a union ; but, perhaps, for 
fear of making him her enemy, or perhaps from her accustomed 
caution, she delayed to give a decisive answer as long as she 
could ; and when she sent her refusal, she took the opportunity 
of declaring to the parliament a determination to lead a single 
life. 

Notwithstanding this declaration, Elizabeth some years after- 
wards admitted tile addresses of the duke of Anjou, the brother 
of the king of France. But partly through her fear of lessening 
her own authority, if she admitted another to share it, and partly, 
perhaps, from love to her people, which made her unwilling to 
give them a foreign king, she broke oflF the match, after keeping 
the duke long in suspense. 

The pretensions of Mary, the young queen of Scotland, were 
an early source of disquiet to Elizabeth. Mary was great-niece 
of Henry A^III., and on the plea that Elizabeth had been de- 
clared illegitimate, she asserted her own right to the crown, and 
took upon her the arms and title of qeeen of England. And 
though this empty boast was not followed by any active attempt, 
it yet laid the foundation in Elizabeth's mind of a deadly hatred 
towards her. 

Mary had been married to the dauphin, who, on his father's 
death, became king of France, by the title of Francis II. ; and 
she had thus been, for a brief season, the queen of the most 
splendid court in Europe, into all the dissipations of which she 
entered eagerly. When, on the early death of Francis, she was 
obliged to return to Scotland, the contrast between the country 
she left and that which she was now come to inhabit struck her 
with melancholy; and the rude manners of the Scots filled her 
with disgust. 

This disgust was increased by difference of religion. Mary 
had been brought up a bigoted Catholic ; and the Reformation, 
which had now made great progress in Scotland, was not marked 
there with a mild and conciliatory spirit. The Scotch reformers 
were men of rigid zeal, and condemned all gayety and amuse- 
ments as sinful. They were as much shocked at the queen's 
levities, as she was displeased by their austerity. 

While these discontents were growing in Scotland, the queen 
of England was busily employed in putting the affairs of her 



ACCESSION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



125 




LORD BCRLEIOH. 



kingdom in order. She called in the old coin, which had been 
shamefully debased in the last three reigns, and replaced it by 
a coinage of the standard weight. She filled her arsenals with 
arms ; she introduced the manufacturing of gunpowder into Eng- 
land ; she frequently reviewed her militia, and put the country 
into a complete state of defence ; she encouraged agriculture, 
trade, and navigation, and increased her navy so much that she 
has been called " the queen of the northern seas." 

Elizabeth's wise government was respected abroad and pros- 
perous at home. She was exceedingly fortunate in the choice 
of her ministers ; particularly in her treasurer. Lord Burleigh, 
and her secretary Walsingham, who were men of extraordinary 
abilities and integrity. While affairs were managed with so 
much vigour and success, her people were scarcely aware in how 
great a degree their queen kept gradually enlarging her pre- 
rogative, nor how much their own liberties were infringed. 

L 2 



126 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



DEATH OF MAEY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. 




HE Catholic powers of the continent formed 
many schemes for annoying or dethroning 
Elizabeth ; and the imprisoned Scottish 
queen, or her adherents, were generally 
concerned in them. The king of Spain, 
determined at length to make a decisive 
eflfort, commenced the preparation of a 
vast fleet, which he termed the Invincible 
Armada, and with which he designed to invade the English 
shores. Elizabeth, her ministers, and people beheld the pre- 
parations with much concern, and their fears were increased by 
the plots which were incessantly forming among her Catholic 
subjects in behalf of the queen of Scots. An act was passed 
declaring that any person by or for whom any plot should be 
made against the queen of England should be guilty of treason. 
When, soon after, a gentleman named Babington formed a con- 
spiracy for assassinating Elizabeth and placing Mary on the 
throne, the latter queen became of course liable to the punish- 
ment for treason, although herself innocent. She was subjected 
to a formal trial in her prison of Fotheringay Castle, and found 
guilty. Elizabeth hesitated for some time to strike ' an unof- 
fending and unfortunate person, related to her in blood and her 
equal in rank. But at length fears for herself got the better of 
her sense of justice, and it may be added of her good sense, and 
she gave her sanction to an act which leaves an ineffaceable stain 
upon her memory. On the 7th of February, 1587, Mary queen 
of Scots was beheaded in the hall of the castle, after a confine- 
ment of more than eighteen years. 



DESTRUCTION OP THE SPANISH ARMADA- 



nr 




DESTRUCTION OF THE SPANISH ARMADA. 



N 1588, the Spanish Armada, consisting of a 
hundred and thirty great vessels, with twenty 
thousand land forces on board, set sail against 
England, while thirty-four thousand more land 
forces prepared to join from the Netherlands. 
Amidst the consternation which prevailed in 
England, active measures were taken to de- 
fend the country; thirty vessels prepared to 
meet the Armada, and another fleet endea- 
voured to block up the Netherlands forces in 
port. The command was taken by Lord Howard of EflSngham. 
Troops were also mustered on land to repel the invaders. The 
English fleet attacked the Armada in the channel, and was 




128 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



found to have a considerable advantage in the lightness and 
manageableness of the vessels. As the Armada sailed along, it 
was infested by the English in the rear, and, by a series of de- 
sultory attacks, so damaged as to be obliged to take refuge on 
the coast of Zealand. The duke of Parma now declined to em- 
bark the Netherlands forces, and it was resolved by the admi- 
ral that they should return to Spain by sailing round the Ork- 
neys, as the winds were contrary to their passage directly back. 
Accordingly, they proceeded northward, and were followed by 
the English fleet as far as Flamborough head, where they were 
terribly shattered by a storm. Seventeen of the ships, having 
5000 men on board, were cast away on the Western Isles and 
the coast of Ireland. Of the whole Armada, fifty-three ships 
only returned to Spain, and these in a wretched condition. The 
seamen, as well as the soldiers who remained, were so overcome 
with hardships and fatigue, and so dispirited by their discom- 
fiture, that they filled all Spain with accounts of the desperate 
valour of the English, and of the tempestuous violence of that 
ocean by which they were surrounded. 



jf^ 





DEATH OF THE EARL OF ESSEX. 



DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



131 



DEATH OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 




T is remarkable, that wliile Elizabeth in- 
creased in power and resources, she be- 
came more noted for feminine weaknesses. 
In her early years she had shown a stoi- 
cism and a superiority to natural aflfections 
not usually observed in women. But in 
her old age, she became both volatile and 
susceptible to an extraordinary degree ; so that the hand which 
she had withheld, in her younger days, from the noblest princes 
of Europe, seemed likely to be bestowed, in her old age, upon 
some mere court minion. Her favourite in middle life was 
Robert, earl of Leicester, a profligate and a trifler. In her latter 
days she listened to the addresses of the earl of Essex, a young 
man of greater courage and better principle, but also headstrong 
and weak. Essex, who had acquired popularity by several bril- 
liant military enterprises, began at length to assume an insolent 
superiority over the queen, who was on one occasion so much pro- 
voked by his rudeness as to give him a hearty box on the ear. 
Notwithstanding all his caprices and insults, the queen still 
dotingly forgave him, until he at length attempted to raise an 
insurrection against her in the streets of London, when he was 
seized, condemned, and after much hesitation executed, (February 
25, 1601.) 

Elizabeth, in at last ordering the execution of Essex, had 
acted upon her usual principle of sacrificing her feelings to what 
was necessary for the public cause ; but in this eflfort, made in 
the sixty-eighth year of her age, she had miscalculated the real 
strength of her nature. She was seen from that time to decline 
gradually in health and spirits. 

About the close of 1601, she fell into a deep hypochondria or 
melaDcholy. She could scarcely be induced to have herself 



132 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



dressed, and at length became so much absorbed by her sorrow 
as to refuse sustenance, and sat for days and nights on the 
floor, supported by a few cushions brought to her by her attend- 
ants. On the 24th of March, 1603, she expired, after a reign 
of nearly forty-five years, during which England advanced from 
the condition of a second-rate to that of a first-rate power, 
and the Protestant religion was established on a basis from 
which it could never afterwards be shaken. 




COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE. 133 




COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAB IN 
FRANCE. 




s^* 



KANCIS I. died on the 31st of March, 
1547, and vras succeeded by his son, 
Henry II., who was married to the 
Italian princess, Catherine de Medicis, 
so conspicuous in French history. His 
reign was chiefly signalized by the bat- 
tle of St. Quentin, fought May 10, 
1557, in which the French sustained 
from the Spaniards the greatest defeat 
they had suffered since the days of Cres- 
sy and Poictiers; and the capture of Calais from the English, 
which was effected by the duke of Guise, Jan. 8, 1558. Henry 
II. was accidentally killed by the Count de Montgomeri, at a 
tournament, June 29, 1559. His successor, Francis IL, who 
married Mary queen of Scots, reigned but one year and five 
months. To counteract the ascendency of the Guise family, 
and to gain religious liberty, the Huguenots, under the direc- 
tion of the Prince of Cond^ and the king of Navarre, formed 
the famous conspiracy of Amboise, which was discovered, 
and the princes seized and imprisoned. Cond^ was condemned 

M 



134 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

to die, but his life was saved by the death of Francis. Cathe- 
rine de Medicis, wishing to oppose their influence to that of the 
Guise's, spared and liberated them. 

Francis II. was succeeded by Charles IX., (a. d. 1560,) in 
whose reign the civil wars between the Huguenots and Catholics 
raged almost incessantly. The events of the late king's short 
reign had tended to place the aifairs of the country in even a 
worse condition than they were in at the death of Henry II. 
The evils of faction were severely felt, and the violence of reli- 
gious differences was increased. 

It was in vain that the chancellor I'HSpital, in a speech on 
the opening of the first assembly of the states in the new reign, 
exhorted to patriotism and religious toleration. These virtues 
were at that time but little known in France. Catherine and 
the duke of Guise were solely intent on the possession of power. 
The duke, although he could not pretend to rule the present 
king, as he had ruled his brother, was yet very unwilling to give 
up the authority which he had been of late accustomed to exer- 
cise. To strengthen his hands, he entered into a close confe- 
deracy with the constable Montmorenci. The mar^chal St. 
Andr^ was another member of this confederacy, which was 
called the triumvirate, The prince of Cond^ regained his liberty 
on the late king's death, and placed himself at the head of the 
Huguenots. His brother, the king of Navarre, soon after 
deserted the Huguenots, and went over to the party of the 
triumvirs. 

Catherine, to balance the power of this confederacy, and be- 
lieving that the grand secret of politics was to govern all parties 
by dividing them against each other, now afi'ected to entertain 
a great regard for the Huguenots, and granted them several 
privileges. But these concessions to the Huguenots only added 
strength to the triumvirate ; for the Catholics, becoming alarmed, 
and believing their own church in danger, relied for protection 
chiefly on the princes of Lorraine. The two parties became 
every day more inflamed, and mutual insults, and retaliations 
took place. A civil war was ready to burst forth, and nothing 
was wanting but a pretext to begin. 

It was not long before this was found. Several Huguenots, 
while at their devotions in a barn at Vassy, were insulted by 
the servants of the duke of Guise, who was travelling through 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR IN FRANCE. 135 

the place. An affray ensued, in which the duke, while endea- 
vouring to quell the tumult, received a blow in the face from a 
stone. His servants, exasperated at seeing their master thus 
wounded, attacked the Huguenots, and killed several of them. 
The Huguenots interpreted the massacre of these peasants as a 
premeditated commencement of hostilities, and as a signal to 
arm. The prince of Cond^ seized on the town of Orleans, and 
there established the chief seat of his party, and published a 
manifesto calling on all good Protestants to assist him in the 
common cause. The Huguenots possessed themselves also of 
many other towns in different parts of the kingdom. They 
applied for assistance to the English queen, and put the town of 
Havre into her hands, as a requital for the succours which she 
engaged to send them. This was the commencement of those 
dreadful religious wars, to which all France was to become a 
prey for many years ; wars which were carried on with the 
greatest animosity, tearing asunder all family and social ties, 
and exposing the wretched inhabitants to all the horrors of fire 
and of the sword. Mezerai says, " If any one were to relate 
all that passed at this time in different parts of France, all the 
taking and retaking of towns, — the infinity of little combats, — 
the furies, — the massacres, it would take up a great many 
volumes." We pass over all but the leading events. 

In 1562, Rouen, which was in possession of the Huguenots, 
was besieged by the Catholics. During this siege, the king of 
Navarre received a wound, of which he soon after died, at 
Andelys, in his way to Paris. When he found himself dying, 
he sent an express to his queen, exhorting her to keep on her 
guard, and on no account to trust herself at court. 

The garrison of Rouen was commanded by the count de 
Montgomeri. He defended the town with great spirit, but it 
was at last taken by assault, and was given up to pillage. When 
Rouen was taken, Montgomeri saved himself from falling into 
the enemy's hands by hurrying on board a galley. He promised 
liberty to the crew if ihey got him off. The crew rowed so 
vigorously that they broke through the chains which were placed 
across the Seine at Caudebec, and landed him in safety at 
Havre. 



136 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




CHARLES IX. 



BATTLE OF DREUX, SIEGE OF ORLEANS, 
AND BATTLE OF ST. DENIS. 



N the same year, a battle was fought at Dreux, 
in Normandy. At the first onset, St. Andr^ 
was killed, and Montmorenci was taken pri- 
soner. Some persons who fled hastened to 
Paris with the intelligence that the Catholics 
were overthrown. The queen, who perhaps 
thought that the vicjpry of the Huguenots 
was more to her advantage than any event which might increase 
the power of the house of Guise, only observed, with the utmost 
levity, "Well then {He hien) we must now say our prayers in 
French." But the fortune of the battle had in the mean time 
changed. The prince of Condd was taken prisoner, and Coligny, 
who then took the command of the Huguenots, was obliged to 




BATTLE OF DREUX. 137 

retire from the field. Cond^ "was immediately conveyed to the 
tent of the duke of Guise, who, seeming to forget that any 
causes of animosity had subsisted between them, received him 
more as a guest than as a prisoner, and as a mark of his confi- 
dence and friendship, made him sleep in the same bed with him- 
self. Coudd afterwards declared that Guise slept as soundly as 
if his best friend, instead of his greatest enemy, was lying by 
his side ; but that, as for himself, he had not closed his eyes all 
night. 

In February, 1563, the Catholic army, under the command 
of the duke of Guise, laid siege to Orleans. The town was on 
the point of being taken, when one evening, as the duke was 
returning to the camp from a visit to his family, he received a 
mortal wound in the shoulder by a pistol-shot, fired at him by a 
anan named Poltrot. The duke instantly fell, and the assassin, 
putting spurs to his horse, galloped off. After having ridden 
full speed the whole of the night, which was extremely dark, 
Poltrot supposed himself to be many miles from Orleans. But 
when daylight broke', he found himself only about a mile from 
the spot from which he had first set out. His horse was unable 
to go a step farther, and he was constrained to seek shelter in a 
house, where, throwing himself on a bed, he soon fell asleep. In 
this state he was discovered, and being put to the torture, he 
accused several persons of having been his instigators, and 
amongst others, the admiral Coligny. Coligny protested his 
innocence, and demanded to be confronted with his accuser; 
but this favour was denied him. Poltrot was put to death with 
savage cruelty. Guise lived only six days after his wound ; but 
before he died, he exhorted Catherine to make peace with the 
Huguenots. He left three sons, Henry, who succeeded him in 
his dukedom, the cardinal de Guise, and Charles, due de Mayenne. 
He had one daughter, married to the due de Montpensier. 
The queen, in compliance with the dying advice of the duke of 
Guise, made peace witl*y|e Huguenots, and granted them very 
favourable conditions. TChese conditions were never fulfilled, 
but hostilities did not break out again for above four years. 

Catherine made use of this interval to conduct the king on a 

royal progress to different parts of his kingdom, with a view to 

ascertain, if possible, the real strength of the Huguenots. At 

Bayonne, the royal party was met by Elizabeth, or, as she was 

18 m2 



138 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

called by the Spaniards, Isabella, queen of Spain, to vrhon 
Philip II. allowed the indulgence of a visit to her mother and 
brother. She was escorted by the duke of Alva, Philip's proud 
and cruel minister ; and Catherine, who often concealed under 
the cloak of festivities the most bloody and relentless purposes, 
is believed to have held with him secret conferences, which had 
for their object the extirpation of the Protestants. But with all 
Catherine's art, she could not avert the suspicion which justly 
attached both to her measures and her character. The Protest- 
ants had long observed that, though she had often made them 
flattering promises, yet these promises were never performed. 
Perpetual outrages were committed by the Catholics both on 
their persons and their property. The duke of Alva, after the 
meeting at Bayonne, was appointed to the command of a nume- 
rous army in the Low Countries, now in a state of revolt against 
Philip's authority. He was the known enemy of their religion: 
he might easily enter Prance and further the designs of the 
queen-mother against them. 

Thus goaded by past, and apprehensive of future injuries, 
the Huguenots flew to arms in 1567. Their first enterprise was 
an unsuccessful attempt to possess themselves of the person of 
the young king, who was then at Meaux. They next proceeded 
to Paris, which they held in blockade during eight days. The 
constable Montmorenci had the command of the city ; and the 
Parisians, impatient under the restraints of a blockade, obliged 
him, contrary to his judgment, to march out and attack the 
enemy, who were exceedingly inferior in numbers. The two 
armies encountered in the plain of St. Denis, and the Hugue- 
nots were worsted ; but the victory was . dearly bought by the 
death of the constable, who, although in the 75th year of his 
age, fought with the courage and activity of youth. Even 
when at last he fell covered with wounds, he had so much vigour 
left, that, by a blow with the pommel of his sword, he beat out 
some of the teeth and broke the ja^^Mpe of Robert Stuart, a 
Scotsman, who had given him his last OTid mortal wound. 




THE^^KE of AlVA 



BATTLES OF JARNAC AND MONTCONTOUR. 



141 




BATTLES OF JARNAC AND MONTCONTOUR. 




FTER the battle of St. Denis, a peace was 
patched up with the Huguenots, but it was 
ill kept, and in a few months the war broke 
out more furiously than ever. On March 
13, 1569, the two parties met on the banks 
of the river Charente, near the town of 
Jarnac. The royal army was nearly four 
times stronger than that of the adversary. Cond^ entered the 
field of battle with his arm in a sling, from the effects of a 
former wound. Before the engagement commenced, a kick 
from a restive horse broke his leg ; but, undaunted by this 
accident, he made a short and animated harangue to his soldiers, 
and rushed forward against the enemy. The Huguenots fought 
with desperate courage, but, overpowered by superior numbers, 
were at length obliged to fly. Cond^, as you may well sup- 
pose, was now unable to move, and was compelled to allow him- 
self to be taken prisonerj^ He was lifted from his horse, and 
placed on the ground, under the shade of a tree. Here one of 
the captains of the duke of Anjou's guard basely came behind 
him, and shot him dead. He left three young sons, Henry, 
who succeeded as prince of Cond^, the count of Soissons, and 
the prince of Conti. 

Henry, prince of Beam, now about sixteen years of age, the 



142 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Bon of Anthony, late king of Navarre, was, on Condi's death, 
declared the head of the Protestants ; but, on account of his 
youth, the command of their forces was given to Coligny. Ro- 
chelle was at this time one of their chief bulwarks, and here 
the queen of Navarre resided with her family, together with 
many of the principal leaders of the Huguenot cause. 

In the following October, the Catholics obtained another vic- 
tory at Montcontour ; but their opponents, though often beaten, 
were far from being subdued. In 1570, Coligny transferred the 
war into Burgundy, where he obtained the advantage. Peace 
was again made, and Coligny was sent for to court. He went 
reluctantly, and with hesitation, but the apparently cordial and 
sincere manner of the king soon effaced all unpleasant suspi- 
cions and lulled him into security. Some authors sq,y, and we 
may, I hope, incline to believe them, that Charles was really 
sincere, and actually meant at the time to fulfil his professions. 
But the common notion is, that the whole of the shocking per- 
fidy which I have here to relate, was a deep laid plot of his and 
his mother's contriving. Catherine, to calm the suspicions of 
the Protestants, proposed and concluded a marriage between 
the prince of Beam and her daughter Margaret. The queen 
of Navarre was invited to Paris to be present at the nuptials. 
It would, perhaps, have been better for her if she had adhered 
to her husband's injunctions, and had not ventured to court. 
She, however, came, and was apparently received by Charles 
with the open-hearted affection due to a relative; but it is 
said, that when their interview was over, he boasted to his 
mother " how well he had acted his part." The pope had op- 
posed with all his power the marriage of Margaret with a Hu- 
guenot prince ; but it is said that Charles assured the pope's 
legate of his own entire devotion to the holy see, and, pressing 
his hand, added these remarkable words: 0! s'il m'etoit per- 
mis de m'expliquer d'avantage. 



MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 143 




MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 

'^N the midst of the preparations for the 
^ marriage of the young prince and 
princess, the queen of Navarre died 
suddenly. Her death is now generally 
attributed to some constitutional dis- 
ease ; but at the time the Protestants 
naturally took alarm at it, and many 
of them believed it to have been pro- 
cured by means of a poisoned pair of 
gloves, which she had purchased of Catherine's Italian per- 
fumer. The marriage of Henry, now by his mother's death 
king of Navarre, with Margaret of Valois, took place August 
18, 1572. It is said that the bride was extremely averse to it ; 
that the being united to a Huguenot filled her with repugnance 
and horror ; and that her affections had been previously fixed 
on the duke of Guise. But Catherine was not accustomed to 
let the feelings of others stand in the way of her own schemes. 
The court was now, to all appearance, fully occupied with 
banquets, masquerades, and other splendid entertainments. The 
Huguenots were treated with the greatest attention. The inha- 
bitants of Rochelle repeatedly sent entreaties to Coligny to quit 
Paris, and " not trust himself in the power of a king whose 
passions were uncontrollable, and of an Italian woman whose 
dissimulation was unfathomable." But Coligny would not 
hearken to their cautions, and declared himself ready to abide 
all hazards rather than show a distrust which might plunge the 
country again into a civil war. 

On August 22, as Coligny was returning from the Louvre to 
his hotel, and walking slowly, perusing some papers, he was 
fired at by a man stationed behind a grated window. He was 
wounded in two places, but it was thought not dangerously. On 
being conveyed home, he was instantly surrounded by the 



144 INCIDENTS OP MODERN HISTORY. 

alarmed and agitated Huguenots. It was discovered that the 
assassin was a servant of the duke of Guise, and that he had 
been stationed for two days behind the window to wait for his 
victim. The king and Catherine, on hearing of this outrage, 
visited Coligny in his bed-chamber, expressed the greatest con- 
cern at the accident, and sent him a guard of their own soldiers, 
as if for his protection. They professed great anxiety lest the 
Parisians should commit any act of hostility against the Pro- 
testants : they gave orders to close all the city gates except 
two, under colour of preventing the escape of the ' assassin ; 
and had an account laid before them of the names and places 
of abode of all the Huguenots in Paris, on the pretence of tak- 
ing them under their immediate protection. Every thing re- 
mained quiet during two days. It was like the calm before a 
thunder-storm. 

The transactions of the bloody day of St. Bartholomew are 
involved in great obscurity. Some assert that the massacre 
had been planned two years before it was executed. Others, 
that the death of Coligny alone was the main object of Cathe- 
rine's machinations, and that the slaughter which followed was 
an after-thought on the part of the court, and resorted to as an 
act of self-defence against the Huguenots, who might be ex- 
pected to revenge the death of the admiral. On Saturday, 
August the 23d, it was finally determined that the massacre 
should begin that night, and that the signal should be the strik- 
ing of the tocsin, or great bell of the palace. The Swiss guards 
and the city militia were ordered to be in readiness, wearing a 
white cross on their hats, and a scarf on their left arms. 

As the hour approached, the king, less hardened than his 
mother, was in the greatest agitation : he trembled from head 
to foot, and the perspiration ran down his forehead. His 
mother and the duke of Anjou had great difficulty in keeping 
him steady to his purpose. The queen at length forced a com- 
mand from him to commence the slaughter, and then, to pre- 
vent the possibility of his retracting, she hastened, as it is said, 
the fatal signal, which was given at half-past one o'clock in the 
morning by the great bell of the palace. On the first sound, 
the implacable Guise flew to the house of Coligny, and there 
completed his bloody purpose ; not indeed by his own hands, 
for he remained below and sent up his people to the admiral's 



MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 147 

chamber. The venerable old man, disabled by his late wounds, 
had no other defence than his calm, intrepid countenance. La 
Besme, a German servant of the duke of Guise, approached 
him with his drawn sword in his hand. « Young man," said 
Coligny, " you ought to reverence these gray hairs ; but do what 
you think proper; my life can be shortened but a very little." 
La Besme made no answer, but plunged the sword into the ad- 
miral's body, while the other assassins despatched him with 
their daggers : they then threw the body out of the window. 
The head was cut off and carried as a trophy to the queen, who, 
it is said, caused it to be embalmed, and sent it as a present to 
the pope. The headless trunk was dragged about the streets 
by the frantic mob, who afterwards hung it on a gibbet at 
Montfau^on, where it remained some days scorched, though not 
consumed, by a fire which was lighted under it. The king and 
his mother came to view it. At last, it was secretly conveyed 
away by orders of the mardchal Montmorenci, who gave it 
honourable burial in his chapel at Chantilly. 

I must now return to the other events of this horrid massacre. 
When morning dawned, the king, who had got rid of his tremors, 
called for his long fowling-piece, and placed himself at one of 
the windows of the palace which looked on the Seine, and em- 
ployed himself in firing on the wretched Huguenots, who were 
endeavouring to secure themselves by crossing the river. He 
continually exclaimed, as he aimed at the fugitives, Tue, tue, 
t irons : mon Dieu I Us s'enfuient. 

Henry of Navarre, and the young prince of Cond^, and 
several other Huguenots, were, by the king's particular desire, 
lodged in the Louvre. All were sacrificed with the exception of 
the two princes. The queen-mother even looked from her win- 
dow at the slaughtered bodies as they were brought out and 
thrown into the court of the palace. In the city, also, the work 
of death was going on with equal ferocity, and did not entirely 
cease during seven days. More than five thousand persons of 
all ranks are supposed to have perished in Paris alone. Some 
few had been so fortunate as to save themselves by flight at the 
first alarm. Others were preserved by the humanity of some of 
the Catholics. The mar^chal Biron, who was in the post of 
master of the artillery, gave to some a secure refuge at the 
arsenal ; and the duke of Guise himself gave protection in his 



148 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORF. 

own house to many whom he was desirous to attach to his ser- 
vice. One poor boy saved his life by concealing himself under 
the murdered bodies of his father and brother, and afterwards 
lived to be a mardchal of France. The massacre was not con- 
fined to Paris ; orders were also sent into the provinces to put 
the Huguenots to the sword. In many places these orders were 
too well obeyed, but not in all. The governor of Bayonne, we 
are told, in answer to the king's mandate, wrote as follows: 
" Your majesty has many faithful servants in Bayonne, but not 
one executioner." 

The court for a time exulted in its victory. Charles was 
heard to declare, that now he had got rid of the rebels, he should 
live in peace. Alas ! he had murdered for ever all his own 
peace. His and Catherine's punishment soon began. Instead 
of living in peace, they were a prey to constant disquietude. At 
one time the king denied all participation in the massacre, and 
. threw the whole blame of it on the duke of Guise. The very 
next day he avowed the deed publicly, and gloried in it, and had 
a solemn mass performed to celebrate what he called the victory 
over the Protestants, and had medals struck in commemoration 
of it. 

The authors of the massacre, to throw the more odium on the 
Protestants, and, as they hoped, to justify themselves, pretended 
that Coligny had formed a plot to kill the king. They insti- 
tuted a mock trial against him for treason : they sentenced him 
to be hung in eflSgy : they commanded every portrait of him to 
be destroyed and trampled on by the common hangman. His 
property was confiscated, his house at Chatillon levelled with 
the ground, and his children degraded from their rank. To 
give more colour to this imaginary plot, they accused two inno- 
cent men as being accessory to it, and caused them to be hung 
on the same gibbet, from which was suspended also the eflSgy of 
the admiral. 

Cond^ and the king of Navarre were for a time kept prison- 
ers in the Louvre. Both persuasions and threats were resorted 
to, to make them renounce the Protestant principles ; and at last 
these princes, young, without friends and advisers, and overcome 
with grief, dismay, and horror at the scenes which were passing 
around them, yielded to the pressure of their circumstances, and 
consented to profess themselves Catholics ; but they retracted 



MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW. 149 

this profession as soon as they had regained their liberty. The 
natural consequence of these shocking transactions was, that 
Charles and Catherine were universally held up to execration, 
excepting, indeed, in the courts of Madrid and Rome. In the 
latter a jubilee was proclaimed by Gregory XIII. to celebrate 
what he termed " the triumph over heresy." 

The Huguenots, who were at first paralyzed with horror, soon 
regained their activity and flew to arms, and their persecutors 
found that, instead of extirpating heresy, they had made the 
heretics desperate. Rochelle was besieged by the royal army, 
but was defended with so much vigour during a protracted siege, 
that the duke of Anjou, who commanded the assailants, found it 
expedient to negotiate. A treaty, bearing date July 6, 1573, 
was concluded with the whole of the Huguenot party. 

Charles IX. died soon after the massacre of St. Bartholomew, 
a prey to remorse. His death is thus described by Markham : 

" The king's health now rapidly declined, and he was visibly 
hastening to the grave. He had never been quite himself since 
the day of St. Bartholomew. His complexion, which before 
was pale, was now often flushed ; his eyes acquired an unnatural 
fierceness, his nights were restless and disturbed, and his sleep 
unrefreshing. As his disorder increased, every symptom was ag- 
gravated. He was seldom still for an instant. His limbs would 
at one moment be distorted by convulsive twitches, and the next 
so stiff that he could not bend them ; and the blood would ooze 
from the pores of his skin. His physicians, unable to compre- 
hend his disorder, afiirmed that it was the eff"ect of poison, or of 
sorcery. Nor was his mind less agitated than his bodily frame. 
The recollection of the massacre continually haunted him, and 
he was frequently overheard bewailing his crime with bitter 
tears and groans. Catherine, who thought more of securing 
her own power than of his sufferings, disturbed his dying mo- 
ments by making him give her a commission of regency for the 
interval which must ensue between his death and the return of 
his brother the king of Poland into France." 



150 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORT. 




HENRY m. 




FOKMATION OF THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE. 

'HE death of Charles IX. without heirs gave the 
throne of France to Henry HI., the favourite 
son of Catherine de Medici. He had acted -with 
his mother in many of her political schemes, 
and particularly in her measures against the 
Huguenot party. But, in his progress to Po- 
land, he had occasion to notice the strong disapprobation with 
which the massacre of St. Bartholomew was regarded by the 
nations of Europe of all creeds; and he never after, amid 
many crimes and follies, showed himself a persecutor. On 
learning the news of his brother's death, fearing to be detained 
by the Polish nobles, he abandoned his kingdom secretly : some 
of the nobility followed him beyond the boundaries, and to 
them he gave an indefinite promise of returning at some future 
period, which he had no intention to perform. The Poles, 



FORMATION OF THE CATHOLIC LEAGUE. 151 

eventually elected another king, and Henry and his former 
subjects seemed speedily to have forgotten the existence of 
each other. 

In his earlier years, Henry had shown some traits of a manly 
and energetic spirit, but all traces of it seemed to have dis- 
appeared at his accession. He showed from the very beginning 
a dislike of serious occupations, a devotion to trifles and de- 
bauchery, and a total abandonment of all the cares of govern- 
ment to his mother and his favourites. Catherine encouraged 
these dispositions, which allowed her to gratify her insatiable 
thirst of dominion. The two great parties by which the king- 
dom was divided had now acquired so much strength and con- 
sistency, that impartiality was scarcely possible ; the royal 
council was similarly divided ; the president, De Thou, treading 
in the steps of the chancellor De I'HSpital, recommended that 
peace should be established on the basis of an amnesty for the 
past, and a toleration of the Protestants for the future ; the 
partisans of the duke of Guise would be contented with nothing 
short of a total extirpation of heresy. The queen, as usual, 
endeavoured to make both parties subservient to her purposes ; 
but her arts had been too often practised to be any longer 
available, and both parties prepared to recommence the war, if 
indeed they can be said ever to have laid it aside. 

The duke of Alengon, who afterwards obtained the title of 
duke of Anjou, and the king of Navarre, had been restored to 
liberty by Henry immediately after his arrival in France ; but 
finding themselves exposed to suspicion, and deprived of all in- 
terest in the state, they quitted the court to place themselves at 
the head of the politicians and the Protestants. The war was 
distinguished by no great exploit on either side, and was termi- 
nated by a peace, in which more favourable conditions were 
granted to the Huguenots than they had hitherto obtained. 
(a. d. 1576.) A portion of the Catholics, headed by the Duke 
of Guise, protested against this treaty, which they deemed sub- 
versive of the established religion, and entered into an alliance 
called the Holy League, in defence of their own views of the 
Catholic religion. The formation of this association, whatever 
may be said in its defence, was certainly a very unfortunate 
circumstance for the kingdom, as it led directly to a renewal of 
the civil war with greater violence than ever. Henry IH., 



152 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



aware of the danger to his throne which would arise from the 
existence of a powerful combination acting independently of 
royal dictation, by what seems a justifiable stroke of policy, 
declared himself the head of the League, and gave his sanction 
to their measures. It is not to be forgotten, when we look 
back upon transactions of this nature, that leagues and asso- 
ciations, avowedly religious, are often mere political combina- 
tions, and that neither the Catholic religion nor any other 
religion is to be held responsible for all the acts of politicians 
who may think proper to give religious titles to their parties. 
In the age of which we are now writing, violence and persecu- 
tion were practised by all parties ; and religious freedom, as 
it is now understood, was a thing unheard of. 




CATHERINE DE MBDIOl. 



ASSASSINATION OF THE DUKE OF GUISE. 153 




ASSASSINATION OF THE DUKE OF GUISE. 

HE death of the duke of An- 
jou, and the improbability of 
Henry's ever having any chil- 
dren, soon made the members 
of the league develop their real 
designs, (a. d. 1584.) Henry 
of Navarre, according to the 
fundamental laws of the king- 
dom, was the next heir to the 
crown ; but as he was only related to the king in the fourteenth de- 
gree, and was besides a Protestant, Catherine and the duke of 
Guise severally laboured to prevent his succession. Catherine 
resolved, in defiance of the Salic law, to procure the crown for the 
descendants of her favourite daughter, the duchess of Lorraine ; 
the duke of Guise, with duplicity equal to her own, pretended to 
join in her design, but strenuously laboured to procure the rich 
inheritance for himself. The clergy were the foremost in exciting 
a new war; every pulpit resounded with declamations on the 
dangers of the church if the throne were possessed by a Pro- 
testant ; every confession-box became the means of secretly whis- 
pering treason into the ears of the populace ; and the press, which 
was almost totally in the hands of the ecclesiastics, produced daily 
the most inflammatory appeals to the prejudices and bigotry of 
the nation. In these invectives the king was not spared ; his 
severe edicts for raising new taxes, his lavish profusion to un- 
worthy favourites, his disgraceful debaucheries, and the hypo- 
critical grimace which he substituted for devotion, furnished 
ample scope for satire ; and it was said in addition, that he had 
formed a secret alliance with the king of Navarre for the pro- 
tection of the Huguenots. The duke of Guise was the main- 
spring of all these complicated movements ; as he could not 
openly claim the crown for himself, he persuaded the old cardi- 
nal of Bourbon, uncle to the king of Navarre, that he was the 
20 



154 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

riglit heir to the crown, in consequence of his nephew's heresy. 
The cardinal, whom contemporary historians briefly but em- 
phatically designate an old fool^ was easily persuaded to assert 
his chimerical claim, and published a manifesto declaring himself 
chief of the league. Henry, however, could not be persuaded 
to set aside the claims of his cousin, the king of Navarre, even 
though that prince had refused to come near the court after he 
had been frequently invited, and had firmly resisted every at- 
tempt made to persuade him to change his religion. 

The accession of the king of Spain to the league became the 
signal for renewing the war, (a. d. 1585 ;) the Protestants 
fought no longer for their privileges, but for their existence : 
the duke of Guise scarcely concealed his designs upon the 
throne, the king of France was exposed to the attacks of both 
factions, and was in equal danger from the success of either. 
This is generally called the war of the three Henrys, viz. the 
king of France, the king of Navarre, and the duke of Guise. 
The most extraordinary of all the matters connected with this 
tedious conflict was the conduct of the pope ; though the league 
was professedly intended to exalt the power of the holy sec, 
Sextus V. looked upon it as a rebellious alliance, equally dan- 
gerous to the interests of royalty and religion. Possessed of 
as proud and ambitious a spirit as any pontifi" that had ever held 
the papal throne, he reverenced in others any manifestations 
of that courage and vigour which formed so conspicuous a part 
of his own character. He excommunicated Henry of Navarre 
and Queen Elizabeth ; the former made a spirited appeal to a 
general council, and had his defiance posted on the gates of the 
Vatican ; Elizabeth excommunicated the pope in her turn. 
When Sextus heard of those instances of intrepidity, he de- 
clared, that, though heretics, these were the only sovereigns in 
Europe that deserved to wear a crown. 

But whatever may have been the private sentiments of the 
pope, his bull afi"orded a pretext to the leaguers, of which the 
duke of Guise was not slow in availing himself. The leaders of 
the sixteen departments into which Paris was divided, the entire 
mob of that city, all the clergy, regular and secular, were on 
his side ; and the deposition of Henry III. Avas an object openly 
avowed by his partisans. The duke's brother, the cardinal of 
Guise, declared publicly that the king should be sent into a 



ASSASSINATION OF THE DUKE OF GUISE. 155 

monastery : his sister the duchess of Montpensier, whom Henry 
had insulted by some remarks on her want of personal beauty, 
exhibited the scissors which were to give him the clerical tonsure. 

Henry of Navarre began now to show some proofs of those 
noble qualities, which have since deservedly procured for him 
the title of Great. The weakness and indecision of his father 
had shaken the confidence of the Protestants in the house of 
Bourbon ; but his mother had redeemed the errors of her hus- 
band ; she was adored by her subjects, with whom she loved to 
reside, far from the intrigues and vices of the court. In the re- 
mote and wild districts of Bearne, Henry received the education 
of a hardy mountaineer, and was early taught to encounter 
difficulties and dangers. When brought to court, he was not 
proof against the seductive arts by which Catherine de Medicis 
endeavoured to bring him over to her party. Indifferent as to 
the means by which her ends were accomplished, Catherine la- 
boured with some success to lead the young prince into habits 
of debauchery, in order that she might rule his actions by 
means of the artful mistresses with which she had supplied him. 
But the impending dangers of the league woke him from his 
dream of guilty pleasure ; he placed himself at the head of the 
Protestant party when its fortunes were at the lowest ebb; often 
defeated but never conquered, he maintained his ground amidst 
the violence of enemies and the insincerity of friends, until he 
finally triumphed, as much by the admiration inspired by his 
moral character as by the terror of his arms. 

Catherine made some ineffectual efforts to prevent this 
war by negotiation, (a. d. 1587,) but being distrusted by both 
parties, she completely failed. The royal army, under the 
duke of Joyeuse, an unworthy favourite of Henry's, was totally 
defeated at Contras by the king of Navarre. On the other 
hand, the duke of Guise cut to pieces an army of Germans, 
who had invaded France to make a diversion in favour of the 
Huguenots. The populace of Paris were so intoxicated with 
joy at the news of the victory obtained by their idol, that 
Henry, who had appeared for some time to have resigned all 
care of the state, was roused from his lethargy by the imminent 
peril that threatened his crown and life. He sent an express 
to Guise, forbidding him to approach Paris ; but the duke, pre- 
tending not to have received the royal mandate, hastened his 



156 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

approach to the city, and was received there with all the ho- 
nours of a triumph, (a. d. 1588.) In order to reduce the 
power of the Sixteen, Henry introduced a body of his Swiss 
guards into Paris, but the citizens, instigated by the partisans 
of Guise, immediately took up arms ; the shops were shut, the 
alarm bells rung, barricades and chains were drawn across the 
streets, and the soldiers driven back from post to post, until 
the king found himself and his attendants closely penned up in 
the Louvre. Henry escaped during the night, leaving the duke 
of Guise in full possession of the capital, but Catherine re- 
mained behind to exert her arts of intrigue in bringino- about 
an accommodation. A treaty was concluded, which neither 
party intended to observe, and in consequence of one of its 
stipulations, an assembly of the states was ordered to be held 
at Blois. The debates and votes in this assembly sufficiently 
showed the dangerous designs entertained by the duke of Guise, 
and the great resources that he possessed for their accomplish- 
ment. To proceed against him for high treason would have 
been absurd, when all the states of the realm were in his fa- 
vour ; open war would certainly terminate in the king's defeat ; 
nothing then remained but the detestable means of assassina- 
tion, and this Henry determined to adopt. A letter from pope 
Sextus greatly contributed to confirm his resolution ; his holi- 
ness advised the king " to render himself master of his rebel- 
lious subjects by any means in his power." Having armed nine 
of his most trusty followers with daggers, Henry sent to invite 
the duke of Guise to a speedy conference on matters of the 
utmost importance. The duke hastened to obey ; but just as 
he was about to enter the room in which the king was, the as- 
sassins fell on him altogether, and he was instantly slain. His 
brother, the cardinal, shared the same fate on the following 
day. Thus fell, in the prime of life, two men whom nature 
had endowed with abilities that might have made them the 
brightest ornaments of France, but which bigotry and ambition 
had rendered useless to themselves and pernicious to the nation. 
Henry proceeded from the scene of blood to his mother's 
apartments, and, announcing to her the news, said, " Now, 
madam, I am indeed a king ;" she heard the account with the 
utmost indifference, but advised him to take advantage of the 
Bonfusion which the event would cause in the league, and secure 



ASSASSINATION OF THE DUKE OF GUISE. 



159 



Paris. But Henry, believing all clanger removed by the death 
of his greatest enemy, relapsed into his ordinary indolence. 
Soon after, Catherine, overwhelmed with sorrow at the disap- 
pointment of all her schemes, and broken down by witnessing 
the ruin which her profligate ambition had brought on her chil- 
dren, felt herself sinking into an unhonoured grave. Her last 
advice to Henry was to establish liberty of conscience, and to 
enter into close alliance with Henry of Navarre. She died 
unlamented and almost forgotten : the dissolution of one who 
had played so prominent a part was regarded everywhere as au 
ordinary incident of trifling importance. 




160 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



ASSASSINATION OF HENRY III. 




NSTEAD of " finding himself indeed 
a king," Henrj, in consequence of 
his crime, was on the brink of ruin, 
members of the league openly threw off 
their allegiance, and choosing as their leader 
the duke de Majenne, the brother of the mur- 
dered duke, gave him the pompous title of "lieu- 
tenant-general of the royal state and crown of France," which 
was in fact giving him the authority of a sovereign without 
the name. Most of the provinces and large cities of France 
declared in favour of the league, and Henry saw no hopes of 
preserving his authority unless he obtained the assistance of 
his cousin of Navarre. That prince suspected the king's sin- 
cerity, for once unjustly, and remembered too well the share 
that Henry had taken in the massacre of St. Bartholomew to 
trust him too readily. But their natural necessities compelled 
both to bury their former animosities in oblivion ; the two Hen- 
rys had an interview at the castle of Plessis les Tours, and en- 
tered into a close alliance which was never afterwards violated. 
(a. d. 1589.) Henry III. was now superior to his enemies ; he 
advanced to Paris and laid close siege to the city ; the inhabi- 
tants were unprepared for his attacks — they had but a small 
stock of provisions and an inadequate garrison ; the duke de 
Mayenne was unable to collect an army for their relief; every 
thing seemed to promise a speedy surrender, when an unex- 
pected event produced a new and total revolution. 

A monk, named James Clement, was persuaded by his own 
fanaticism, aided by the artful suggestions of some of the 
leaguers, that he would perform a meritorious action by killing 
a monarch who was an enemy to the church. For this purpose 
he resolved to go on to St. Cloud, where the king resided, and 



ASSASSINATION OF HENRY III. 163 

under the pretence of giving him a letter, stab him in the midst 
of his guards. Never did an assassin display so much intre- 
pidity ; on his road he met La Guesle and his brother, who 
were going to join the royal army; he was by them conveyed 
to the camp, and spent the night of his arrival in their tent. 
He supped gayly with La Guesle's followers, retorted with con- 
siderable humour the jokes passed on his monkish habit, readily 
answered every question put to him, and, after leaving the 
table, spent the night in a profound sleep. On the following 
morning he was introduced to the king, and presented his let- 
ters ; while Henry was engaged in looking at them, Clement 
stabbed him with a knife which he had concealed in his sleeve ; 
the king immediately called out that he was murdered, and, 
drawing out the knife from the wound, struck the assassin in 
the face ; at the same time the attendants despatched him with 
their swords. The death of Clement prevented any discovery 
of those by whom he had been instigated to the atrocious deed ; 
but it appears very probable that the family of Lorraine were 
those who had most share in the contrivance, in revenge for the 
murder of the duke of Guise. When Henry found that his 
wound was mortal, he prepared for death with much apparent 
resignation. He took an affectionate farewell of the king of 
Navarre, whom he declared his successor, after having strenu- 
ously exhorted him to conciliate his future subjects by embrac- 
ing the Catholic religion. Having then confessed himself with 
much apparent devotion, he expired in the 38th year of his age 
and the 15th of his reign. With him ended the house of 
Valois, which had held the throne of France for 261 years. 
During their dynasty, the several independent principalities 
into which Gaul had been so long divided were consolidated 
into the single compact kingdom of France ; but this advantage 
was more than counterbalanced by the establishment of arbi- 
trary principles of government, and the continual weakening 
of the influence previously possessed by the assemblies of the 
states. 

The news of the assassination of Henry III. had been re- 
ceived at Paris with odious joy. It was celebrated by bonfires 
and other marks of rejoicing. The duchess of Montpensier 
got into a carriage with her mother, and passing through the 
streets, called out to the people, from time to time, " Good 



164 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

news ! good news !" The pulpits resounded with eulogies on 
the glorious martyr, James Clement. Crowds ran to see his 
mother, a poor rustic, whom the duchess of Montpensier had 
brought to Paris ; and the sixteen, in their harangues, applied 
to her these words of Scripture, " Happy is the womb which 
has borne thee, and blessed are the breasts which have given 
thee milk." The Parisians, however, demanded a king. May- 
enne not daring to take the crown himself, because he knew 
the people, as well as the king of Spain, were opposed to his 
wishes, caused the old cardinal de Bourbon to be proclaimed, 
under the name of Charles X. " He was," says L'Etoile, "the 
true king of the theatre and of painting," and was, at that 
time, the prisoner of Henry IV. For himself, Mayenne was 
content to bear the title of lieutenant-general of the kingdom, 
which, in fact, placed in his hands all the power of the state. 
He then invited the parliament, the provinces, and the nobility 
to deliver their king from captivity, and to stand forward in 
defence of their religion. At the same time, he established a 
secret understanding with the royal army, and endeavoured to 
gain over both the officers and soldiers. 

As with Henry HI. the race of Valois, by the deed of Cle- 
ment, was extinguished, the direct line of the Capets ceased 
by the death of the three brothers without male issue. The 
next heir to the throne was Henry de Bourbon, king of Na- 
varre, related to the late king in the twenty-second degree ; 
but the name which he bore as a Huguenot was, in the opinion 
of many, enough to exclude him for ever from the throne. The 
Catholics, who would have deemed it a crime to conspire against 
Henry III., their legitimate king, scrupled not to repulse 
Henry IV. altogether, or, at all events, till he should have re- 
entered the bosom of the church. One other thought influenced 
them generally, or at least a great number of them ; they had 
an idea of making him purchase their adhesion, or, perhaps of 
creating small sovereignties, in particular cities and provinces. 



BATTLE OF IVRI. 



167 



BATTLE OF IVRI. 




HE death of Henry III. (a. d. 1589) re- 
lieved Paris from the imminent dangers 
to which it had been exposed; the title 
of Henry lY. was indeed acknowledged 
by the principal leaders of the besieg- 
ing army, but his religion prevented 
them from warmly espousing his cause ; 
the greater part drew off their forces, 
and Henry was compelled to raise the 
siege, which his diminished forces could no longer continue. 
The duke of Mayenne, who might have assumed the title of 
king, chose rather to proclaim the cardinal of Bourbon, though 
he remained a prisoner ; and having collected a numerous band 
of leaguers, he pursued Henry on his retreat to Normandy. 

Henry IV. again approached the capital ; and Mayenne set out 
to dispute the road with him. The two armies met near Dreux, 
in the plain of Ivri. By daybreak of the following morning, 
the preparations for battle were complete ; but Henry made none 
for retreat — "No other place of retreat," he said, "than the 
field of battle." The armies, on both sides, betook themselves 
to prayer. Henry, advancing on horseback, before his troops, 
armed at all points, but with head uncovered, exclaimed : — " Oh 
Lord ! thou knowest my secret thoughts ; if it be good for my 
people that I should reign, defend thou my cause, and prosper 
my arms." Then, when the acclamations which his words pro- 
duced had subsided, — "My children," he cried to his soldiers, 
"if you should lose sight of our standards, follow my white 
plume; you will find it always on the road to honour." After 
these words, he gave the signal to charge ; and the army of 
Mayenne, though far superior in point of numbers, was almost 
entirely destroyed, (a. d. 1590.) The conqueror marched di- 
rectly upon Paris, which he invested with his troops : and, about 



168 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



the same time, his rival and prisoner, the old cardinal de Bour- 
bon, died. This prince had always recognised the claims of his 
nephew to the throne ; but Henr j, knowing the weakness of his 
character, had feared that he might become an instrument in 
the hands of the leaguers, if they should get possession of him. 
His own followers gave the king nearly as much trouble as 
his enemies ; the Catholic royalists detested the Huguenots ; the 
Protestants returned the hatred, and were, besides, divided 
among themselves; the princes of the blood were either too 
young to exert any influence, or had ranged themselves under 
the banners of the league, and Henry found himself engaged in 
this dangerous war almost solely dependent on his own personal 
resources. The king of Spain was anxious to obtain the crown 
of France for his daughter, Clara Eugenia; the Protestant 
princes of Europe, dreading the additional power that would 
thus be added to the Spanish monarchy, already formidable, 
resolved to support the cause of Henry ; the queen Elizabeth 
especially assisted him with money and warlike stores. 




B KNRY IV. 



SIEGE OF PARIS 



169 



SIEGE OF PARIS. 




HESE aids, and the confidence 
inspired by several successive tri- 
umphs, soon enabled Henry to 
undertake the siege of Paris, 
(a. d. 1590,) where the hatred of 
the leaguers displayed itself with 
more violence, in proportion as 
the king showed himself more 
worthy of affection. Though their 
shadow of a king, the cardinal de Bourbon, had lately died, a'hd 
they had not selected any other in his place, so far were they 
from thinking of submitting to their rightful sovereign, that the 
doctors of the Sorbonne declared that Henry, being a relapsed 
heretic, could not receive the crown even though he should obtain 
absolution, and this shameful decree was confirmed by the par- 
liament. In the mean time, Paris, being closely blockaded and 
ill supplied with provisions, was attacked by all the horrors of a 
severe famine. Bread was made of bones ground into powder, 
food the most revolting was eagerly sought after, multitudes 
dropped daily dead in the street from extreme starvation, but 
no one spoke of yielding. The clergy had promised a crown 
of martyrdom to all who died in the cause of the church, and 
their deluded followers submitted to every privation without a 
murmur. Still, had Henry not been moved with a paternal 
pity for his frantic subjects, he might have taken Paris by as- 
sault ; but when urged to give orders for the purpose, he replied 
— " I had rather lose Paris, than get possession of it when ruined 
by the death of so many persons." He gave the fugitives from 
the city a safe passage through his camp, and permitted his 
officers and soldiers to send in refreshments to their friends. By 
this lenity he indeed lost the fruit of his labours for the present, 
but he gained the approbation of his own conscience and the 
22 P 



/ 



170 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

admiration of posterity. The prince of Parma, who commanded 
the Spanish army in Flanders, advanced to the relief of Paris 
when the citizens were at the very point of despair ; by a series 
of masterly movements, he disconcerted the efforts made by 
Henry to bring on an engagement, relieved the garrison, and 
returned to continue his wars with the Dutch ; after having per- 
formed this essential service to the league with scarcely the loss 
of a man. The following year Henry met a similar disappoint- 
ment at the siege of Rouen, where the escape of the prince of 
Parma was effected under such difficult circumstances, that 
Henry could scarcely believe the evidence of his senses, when 
he found that the hostile troops were beyond his reach. Death 
soon after delivered the king from this formidable rival; the 
prince died in Flanders, at the age of forty-seven ; his military 
talents and great virtues would have brought the United Pro- 
vinces again under the yoke of Spain, had it been possible to 
find a remedy for despotism and persecution. 

The conduct of the Sixteen at Paris contributed much to 
weaken the influence of the league ; these hot-headed rebels 
pretended to give the law both to the duke de Mayenne and the 
parliament. When a man whom they wished to destroy was 
acquitted, they suddenly broke out into the most furious excesses, 
and actually hanged three of the magistrates who had been 
judges at the trial, among whom was Brisson, the first presi- 
dent of the parliament. The duke de Mayenne acted on this 
occasion with a promptitude and decision foreign to his character ; 
he marched to Paris at the head of his most trusty followers, 
delivered the most violent of the murderers to the executioner, 
deprived the Sixteen of the Bastile, which had been their prin- 
cipal stronghold, and thus finally crushed a detestable faction, 
which derived its whole strength from the madness of fanaticism. 
But these favourable events were not sufficient to put Henry in 
possession of the kingdom, while he professed a religion odious 
to the majority of his subjects; his most faithful followers, 
Protestant as well as Catholic, recommended him to change his 
religion, and Henry only delayed through fear of offending 
Elizabeth and the Protestant princes of Germany. At length, 
finding that the states-general had proceeded so far as to offer 
the crown to the Spanish infanta, on condition of her marrying 
a French prince, Henry saw that further delay might bring ruin 




SOLDIERS OF HENET IV. GIVING PROVISIONS TO THE BESIEGEII PARISIAN* 



SIEGE OF PARIS. 173 

on his cause, and publicly abjured Protestantism in the church 
of St. Denis, (a. d. 1593.) Though this conversion was anj 
thing but sincere, it was followed by the most beneficial effects. 
The nobility in general hastened to reconcile themselves to a 
king whose character they respected, and most of those who still 
held out only did so in hopes of receiving some reward for re- 
turning to their allegiance. The duke de Mayenne and some 
few of the more violent leaguers, however, obstinately refused 
to acknowledge the king, until he had received absolution from 
the pope; the bigoted clergy preached with their accustomed 
vehemence against the man of Beam, as they still called their 
sovereign ; but the efforts of some men of genius who had joined 
the royal cause weakened the force of their invectives. Several 
ingenious writings against the follies and absurdities of these 
ignorant bigots, especially the Menippean satire, covered them 
with such merited ridicule that they found their declamations 
unheeded and neglected. At length Paris opened its gates to 
Henry, (a. d. 1594,) and found in him not a vindictive conqueror, 
but a paternal sovereign. 



p2 



174 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV. 

jE are told by Sully, that Henry meditated the 
formation of a Christian republic in Europe ; it 
was proposed to divide Europe between fifteen 
sovereigns, none of whom should be permitted to 
make any new acquisition, but should form alto- 
gether an association for maintaining a mutual balance and 
preserving peace. This project was one of very questionable 
utility, and at all events could never be realized ; his second 
object, to set bounds to the ambition of the house of Austria, 
both in Germany and Italy, was more practicable and more im- 
mediately useful. He had already made the necessary prepa- 
rations for this enterprise, when the emperor, Rodolph II., 
furnished him with a pretence for commencing the war, by 
sequestrating the duchies of Cleves, Juliers, and Bergue, after 
the death of the last duke. Henry«ntered into a league with 
the elector of Brandenburg and the count Palatine of Neuburg, 
who both pretended to the succession. The Protestants of Ger- 
many, always justly suspicious of Austrian treachery, formed 
a new alliance for the protection of their civil and religious 
liberties, of which Henry was privately the contriver, and pub- 
licly the chief support. The pope, the republic of Venice, and 
the confederacy of the Swiss cantons, all led by separate inte- 
rests, were united in the common resolution of checking the 
imperial power. 

Never was any enterprise better concerted. Henry was to 
march into Germany at the head of forty thousand excellent 
soldiers. Sully had provided ample resources for the expenses 
of the army; the allies were all eager to perform their several 
stipulations. On the other side, the emperor was immersed in 
the study of astrology, and a vain search after the philosopher's 
stone ; his only supporter, the king of Spain, was the slave of 
bigoted inquisitors and avaricious favourites ; both were desti- 




H E V R y IV 



ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV. 177 

tute of wisdom, confidence, and resources. Henry was impatient 
to join the army, but was detained much against his will, to 
gratify the queen with the vain ceremony of a coronation, which 
she insisted on with the most eager violence. During the fes- 
tivities which took place on this occasion, the mind of Henry 
was distracted by the most gloomy forebodings, and he more 
than once felt that "coming events cast their shadows before," 
in fearful anticipations of a sudden and violent death. His 
apprehensions were fatally fulfilled. Passing along a street, his 
coach was entangled in a crowd, and a desperate fanatic, named 
Ravaillac, took that opportunity of stabbing him. The assassin 
mounted on the hind wheel of the coach, and plunged a knife 
into the king's bosom, who was so intent on the perusal of a 
letter that he did not even see his murderer. The courtiers 
who were in the coach drew up the windows, and ordered the 
driver to return to the Louvre, but life was extinct before they 
reached the palace. Thus died, at the age of fifty-seven, a 
prince worthy of immortality, against whom more than fifty 
conspiracies were formed by his contemporaries, but whose me- 
mory has been hallowed by the admiration of posterity, and 
whose reign might serve as a model to all princes who love their 
subjects. Let us bury in oblivion a few spots which stain his 
private life, weaknesses which are unhappily too common to he- 
roic minds, and honour him for the clemency which he showed 
to his inveterate enemies, the wisdom with which he tranquillized 
a land distracted by civil wars for nearly half a century, and 
the enlightened toleration of which he gave a bright example 
himself, and recommended the practice to his successors. Much 
of the glory, both of the public works that Henry executed, and 
those still greater which he had projected, undoubtedly belongs 
to Sully ; but it is no small praise to have selected such an ad- 
viser, and to have borne with patience the reproofs which Sully 
frequently gave him with a boldness almost republican. The 
king was happy in possessing such a minister, and the minister 
was as happy in having such a king. The nation was still more 
fortunate in enjoying such a rare combination as a virtuous 
sovereign and a patriotic administration. 

Mary de Medicis, the queen, now became regent. The first 
care of the regent, after having secured her own authority and 
the throne of her son, was to punish the assassin of the late king. 



178 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

This was a duty which she owed to mankind; but humanity 
shudders to recall the manner in which it was fulfilled. Francis 
Ravaillac, beneath whose hand Henry IV. perished, seems to 
have been a gloomy enthusiast, who had no great or settled object 
to gain by becoming a regicide. It was natural to suspect that he 
might have accomplices. To detect them, if such were in exist- 
ence, was most desirable. None, however, were discovered ; but 
the wretched prisoner was put to the torture in order to make 
him disclose the names of his companions in guilt. He was first 
sworn; and then the dreadful engine called "the brodequin," a 
sort of boot, was produced. His legs being inserted in the bro- 
dequin, wedges were introduced and driven down. The most 
dreadful anguish was inflicted as they were tightened, and force 
continued to be applied till the limbs were crushed, and the suf- 
ferer fainted. While he retained his senses, a minister of reli- 
gion was in constant attendance to heighten the horror of the 
moment, by telling the victim that the exquisite misery he then 
experienced was trifling in comparison with that which awaited 
him in the world to come, when his sinful spirit should be dis- 
missed from this. Not merely once was this attempt made on his 
conscience, but repeatedly was the question applied. No confes- 
sion, however could be wrung from him, though he was continu- 
ally assured that for him there was no pardon in another state of 
being, unless he named those who had prompted his crime. It 
almost moves our admiration, to find that, thus pursued, he had 
the resolution to abstain from seeking a momentary respite from 
agony by making a false confession; but to this he could not- be 
subdued. Other men, in the like melancholy circumstances, 
have been unable to resist the brutal importunities of those about 
them, and in their maddening throbs have breathed accusations 
against all they were desired to inculpate, and the guiltless have 
in consequence been sacrificed. In numerous instances, poor 
wretches have accused themselves of holding communion with 
the devil, and described minutely the various shapes in which, 
as they said, he had appeared to them, and the worship they 
were accustomed to ofier to his infernal majesty. Bernard de 
Gu^, it has been seen, produced to his judges, while suffering 
from being exposed to a fire, two bones, which had, he said, 
been extracted by magic from his heels ; and Americ de Villiers 
declared to his tormentors* when tortured, that he had person- 



ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV. 



179 




EXECUTION OP RAVAILLAC. 



ally taken part in the crucifixion of the Redeemer. With equal 
ease might Ravaillac have purchased a respite from intolerable 
agony, by naming innocent persons as his accomplices. To this 
weakness, in his greatest extremity, the unhappy victim was 
never brought. He was at length sentenced to a horrible death. 
Justice, throwing aside all moderation and dignity, proceeded 
with insane ferocity, not merely to destroy the unhappy culprit, 
but the house in which he had lived was razed to the ground ; 
and it was ordered, that, within fifteen days after the promulga- 
tion of the sentence, his relations, who were not shown in 
any way to have participated in his crime, should " be banished 
by sound of trumpet from the kingdom, and forbidden ever to 
return, under pain of being hanged and strangled, without other 
process of law." The miserable Ravaillac, no longer sustained 
by the enthusiasm which had carried him away in the first in- 
stance to an outrage so dreadful, now recalled the crime he had 
perpetrated with horror. He was carried in a cart to Notre 
Dame, there to ask pardon of the Almighty for the dreadful 
deed he had committed, and thence taken to the Place de Gr^ve, 
where his right hand was burned from his body by sulphur, his 
limbs were torn with pincers, and melted lead, boiling oil, and 



180 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



flaming rosin were poured on his wounds. The infliction was 
long protracted, and the groans and struggles of the culprit are 
said to have been witnessed with joy by the populace. He was 
finally attached to four horses, which, pulling in opposite direc- 
tions, at length terminated his existence, by tearing his body to 
pieces. Fragments of his corpse were then seized by the excited 
crowd. Portions of it were preserved, but bonfires were made 
in several parts of Paris to consume the quarters of the criminal, 
which were reduced to ashes, amidst the furious execrations of 
the frantic multitude. 





JAMES I. 



ACCESSION OF JAMES I. 



183 




ACCESSION OF JAMES I. 




^ HE accession of the family of Stuart to the 
!^ throne of England forms a memorable era 
in the history of Great Britain. It gave 
birth to a struggle between the king and 
parliament that repeatedly threw the whole 
island into convulsions, and which was never 
fully composed until the final expulsion of 
the royal family. 
The English throne being left vacant by the death of Eliza- 
beth, who with her latest breath had declared that she wished 
to be succeeded by her nearest kinsman, the king of Scots, or 
who in her dying moments had made signs to that purpose, 
James was immediately proclaimed king of England by the 
lords of the privy-council. He was great-grandson of Margaret, 
eldest daughter of Henry YII., so that, on the failure of the male 
line of the house of Tudor, his hereditary title remained un- 
questionable. The crown of England, therefore, passed from 
the family of Tudor to that of Stuart, with as much tranquil- 
lity as ever it was transmitted from father to son. People of 
all ranks, forgetting their ancient hostilities with Scotland, and 



184 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



their aversion against the dominion of strangers, testified theii 
satisfaction with louder acclamations than were usual at the 
accession even of their native princes. They foresaw greater 
advantages resulting from a perpetual alliance with Scotland, 
than inconveniencies from submitting to a sovereign of that 
kingdom. And by this junction of its whole collective force, 
Great Britain has risen to a degree of power and consequence 
in Europe, which Scotland and England, destined by their po- 
sition to form one vigorous monarchy, could never have attained 
as separate and hostile kingdoms. 




THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 



185 




Aar.EST OF GUIDO FAWKES. 



THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 




scheme 
The 



URING the season of peace and 
tranquillity which followed James's 
accession, (a. d. 1605,) was brought 
to light one of the most diabolical 
I plots of which there is any record in the his- 
flf* tory of mankind. The conspiracy to which 
we allude is the gunpowder treason. A 
so infernally dark will require some elucidation. 
Roman Catholics in general were much disappointed, 

24 q2 



186 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

and even exasperated, by the king's conduct in religious mat- 
ters. He was not only the son of the unfortunate Mary, whose 
life they believed to have been sacrificed to their cause ; but, 
in order to quiet opposition, and make his accession to the 
throne of England more easy, he had given them hopes that he 
would tolerate their religion. They therefore expected great 
favour and indulgence under his government. But they soon 
discovered their mistake ; and, equally surprised and enraged, 
when they found James had resolved to execute the rigorous 
laws enacted against them, they determined on vengeance. 
Some of the most zealous of the party, under the direction of 
Garnet, the superior of the Jesuits in England, conspired to 
exterminate, at one blow, the most powerful of their enemies in 
the kingdom ; and in consequence of that blow to re-establish 
the Catholic faith. Their conspiracy had for its object the 
destruction of the king and parliament. For this purpose, 
they lodged thirty-six barrels of gunpowder in a vault beneath 
the House of Lords, usually let as a coal-cellar, and which had 
been hired by Percy, a near relation of the family of Northum- 
berland, and one of the original conspirators. The time fixed 
for the execution of the plot was the fifth of November, the 
day appointed for the meeting of the parliament, when the 
king, queen, and prince of Wales were expected to be in the 
house, together with the principal nobility and gentry. The 
rest of the royal family were to be seized, and all despatched, 
except the princess Elizabeth, James's youngest daughter, yet 
an infant, who was to be raised to the throne, under the care 
of a Catholic protector. 

The destined day at length drew nigh, and the conspirators 
were filled with the strongest assurance of success. Nor with- 
out reason ; for, although the horrid secret had been communi- 
cated to above twenty persons, no remorse, no pity, no fear of 
punishment, no hope of reward, had induced any one accom- 
plice, after more than twelve months, either to abandon the 
conspiracy, or to make a discovery of it. But the holy fury 
by which they were actuated, though it had extinguished in 
their breasts every generous sentiment and every selfish mo- 
tive, yet left them susceptible to those bigoted partialities by 
which it was inspired, and which fortunately saved the nation. 
A short time before the meeting of parliament, Lord Monteagle, 



THE GUNPOWDER PLOT. 18V 

A Catholic nobleman, whose father, Lord Morley, had been a 
great sufferer during the reign of Elizabeth, on account of his 
attachment to popery, received the following letter : 

« My lord — Out of the love I bear to some of your friends, 
I have a care of your preservation : therefore, I •'yould advise 
you, as you tender your life, to devise some excuse to shift off 
your attendance at this parliament ; for God and man have 
resolved to punish the wickedness of this time. And think 
not slightly of this advertisement ; but retire yourself into your 
country, where you may expect the event in safety : for, though 
there be no appearance of any stir, yet I say they will receive 
a terrible blow this parliament, and yet they shall not see who 
hurts them. This counsel is not to be contemned ; because it 
may do you good, and can do you no harm — for the danger is 
past as soon as you have burned the letter ; and I hope God 
will give you the grace to make good use of it, to whose holy 
protection I commend you." 

Though Monteagle was inclined to think this a foolish at- 
tempt to expose him to ridicule, by frightening him from at- 
tending his duty in parliament, he judged it safest to carry the 
letter to Lord Salisbury, secretary of state. Salisbury either 
did or pretended to think it a light matter ; so that all farther 
inquiry was dropped till the king, who had been for some time 
at Royston, returned to town. To the timid sagacity of James, 
the matter appeared in a more important point of view. From 
the serious and earnest style of the letter, he conjectured that 
it intimated some dark and dangerous design against the state ; 
and many particular expressions in it, such as great^ sudden, 
and terrible bloiv, yet the authors concealed, seemed to denote 
some contrivance by gunpowder. It was, therefore, thought 
proper to inspect all the vaults below the two houses of parlia- 
ment. This inspection, however, was purposely delayed till the 
day before the meeting of the great council of the nation ; when, 
on searching the vaults beneath the House of Lords, the gun- 
powder was discovered, though concealed under great piles of 
wood and fagots ; and Guido Fawkes, an officer in the Spanish 
service, who stood in a dark corner, and passed himself for 
Percy's servant, was seized and carried to the Tower. 

This man had been sent for from Flanders, on account of his 
determined courage and known zeal in the Catholic cause. He 



188 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



■was accordingly intrusted with the most trying part in the en< 
terprise. The matches, and every thing proper for setting fire 
to the train, were found in his pocket. He at first behaved 
with great insolence and obstinacy ; not only refusing to dis- 
cover his accomplices, but expressing the utmost regret that he 
had lost the precious opportunity of at least sweetening his 
death by taking vengeance on his and God's enemies. But, 
after some days' confinement and solitude, his courage failed 
him on being shown the rack, and he made a full discovery of 
all the conspirators. Several of them were men of ancient 
family, independent fortune, and unspotted character — insti- 
gated alone to so great a crime by a fanatical zeal, which led 
them to believe that they were serving their Maker, while they 
were contriving the ruin of their country and the destruction 
of their species. 

Such of the conspirators as were in London, on hearing that 
Fawkes was arrested, hurried down to Warwickshire ; where 
Sir Everard Digby, one of their associates, was already in 
arms, in order to seize the princess Elizabeth, who was then at 
Lord Harrington's in that county. They failed in their at- 
tempt to get hold of the princess ; the county rose upon them, 
and they were all taken and executed, except three, who fell a 
sacrifice to their desperate valour ; namely, Wright, a daring 
fanatic ; Catesby, the original conspirator ; and Percy, his first 
and most active associate. 




DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF NORTH AMERICA. 189 




DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF NORTH 
AMERICA. 



VII. 



HE fame which Columbus had acquired by 
his first discoveries on this western conti- 
nent spread through Europe, and inspired 
many with the spirit of enterprise. As 
early as 1496, only four years after the first 
discovery of America, John Cabot, a Vene- 
tian, obtained a commission from Henry 
to discover unknown lands, and annex them to the crown. 




In the spring he sailed from England with two ships, carrying 
with him his three sons. In this voyage, which was intended 
for China, he fell in with the north side of Terra Labrador, and 
coasted as far as 67° north latitude. Next year he made a 
second voyage with his son Sebastian, who afterwards proceeded 
in the discoveries which his father had begun. On the 24th of 



190 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




PONCE DE LEON. 



June lie discovered Bonavista, on the north-east side of New- 
foundland ; traversed the coast from Davis's Straits to Cape 
Florida ; and in 1502, brought three natives of Newfoundland 
to Henry VII. 

In 1513, Ponce de Leon sailed from Porto Rico northerly, 
and discovered the continent in 30° 8' north latitude. He 
landed in April, a season when the country around was covered 
with verdure, and in full bloom. This circumstance induced him 
to call the country Florida, which, for many years, was the 
common name for both North and South America. 

In 1516, Sebastian Cabot and Sir Thomas Pert explored the 
coast as far as Brazil in South America. This vast extent of 
country, the coast whereof was thus explored, remained un- 
claimed and unsettled by any European power, (except by the 
Spaniards in South America,) for almost a century from the time 
of its discovery. 

It was not till 1524 that France attempted discoveries on the 
American coast. Stimulated by his enterprising neighbours, 
Francis I. sent John Verrazano, a Florentine, to America, to 
make discoveries; who traversed the coast from 28° to 50° 
north latitude, but in a second voyage, some time after, was lost 




C ARTIER TAKING POSSESSION OF CANADA. 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF NORTH AMERICA. 193 




VERRAZANO. 



In 1525, Stephen Gomez, the first Spaniard who came upon the 
American coast for discovery, sailed from Groyn in Spain to 
Cuba and Florida, thence northward to Cape Razo, in 46° north 
latitude, in search of a north-west passage to the East Indies. 

In the spring of 1534, by the direction of Francis I., a fleet was 
fitted out at St. Malo's in France, with design to make disco- 
veries. The command of this fleet was given to James Cartier. 
He arrived at Newfoundland in May of this year. Thence he 
sailed northerly ; and, on the day of the festival of St. Law- 
rence, he found himself, in about 48° 30' north latitude, in the 
midst of a broad gulf, which he named St. Lawrence. He gave 
the same name to the river which empties into it. In this 
voyage, he sailed as far as 51° north latitude, expecting in vain 
to find a passage to China. Next year he sailed up the river 
St. Lawrence three hundred leagues to the great and swift fall- 
He called the country New France ; built a fort, in which he spent 
the winter, and returned in the following spring to France. 

In 1522, Francis La Roche was sent to Canada, by the 
French king, with three ships and two hundred men, women, and 
children. They wintered here in a fort which they had built, and 
returned in the spring. About the year 1550, a large number 
of adventurers sailed for Canada, but were never after heard of 
In 1578, the king of France commissioned the marquis de la 
25 R 



194 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




Roche to conquer Canada, and other countries not possessed 
by any Chriitian prince. We do not learn, however, that La 
Roche ever attempted to execute his commission, or that any 
further attempts were made to settle Canada during this century. 
On the 12th of May, 1539, Ferdinand de Soto, with nine 
hundred men, besides seamen, sailed from Cuba, having for his 
object the conquest of Florida. On the 30th of May he ar- 
rived at Spirito Santo, from whence he travelled northward four 
hundred and fifty leagues from the sea. Here he discovered a 
river of a quarter a mile wide and nineteen fathoms deep, on the 
bank of which he died and was buried. May, 1542, aged forty- 
two years. Alverdo, his successor, built seven brigantines, and 
the year following embarked upon the river. ■ In seventeen days 
he proceeded down the river four hundred leagues, where he 
judged it to be fifteen leagues wide. From the largeness of the 
river at that place of his embarkation, he concluded its source 
must have been at least four hundred leagues above, so that the 
whole length of the river in his opinion must have been more than 
eight hundred leagues. As he passed down the river, he found 
it opened by two mouths into the gulf of Mexico. These circum- 
stances lead us to conclude, that this river, so early discovered, 
was the one which we now call the Mississippi. 




SOTO DISCOVERINQ THE MISSISSIPPI. 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF NORTH AMERICA. 197 

In 1562, Admiral Coligny, of France, sent out a fleet under 
the command of John Ribault. He arrived at Cape Francis on 
the coast of Florida, near Avhich, on the first of May, he disco- 
vered and entered a river which he called May river. It is pro- 
bable, this river is the same which we now call St. Mary's. As he 
coasted northward, he discovered eight other rivers, one of which 
he called Port Royal and sailed up it several leagues. On one 
of the rivers he built a fort, and called it Charles, in which he 
left a colony, under the direction of Captain Albert. The severity 
of Albert's measures excited a mutiny, in which, to the ruin of 
the colony, he was slain. 

Two years after, Coligny sent Rene Laudonnier with three 
ships to Florida. In June he arrived at the river May, on 
which he built a fort, and, in honour to his king, Charles IX., 
he called it Carolina. In August, Captain Ribault arrived at 
Florida the second time, with a fleet of seven vessels to recruit 
the colony, which, two years before, he had left. under the di- 
rection of the unfortunate Captain Albert. In September, Pe- 
dro Melendes, with six Spanish ships, pursued Ribault up the 
river on which he had settled, and, overpowering him in num- 
bers, cruelly massacred him and his whole company. Melendes, 
having in his way taken possession of the country, built three 
forts, and left them garrisoned with twelve hundred soldiers. 
Laudonnier and his colony on May river, receiving information 
of the fate of Ribault, took the alarm and escaped to France. 

In 1567, a fleet of three ships was sent from France to Flo- 
rida, under the command of Dominique de Gourges. The object 
was to dispossess the Spaniards of that part of Florida which 
they had cruelly and unjustifiably seized three years before. 
He arrived on the coast of Florida, April, 1568, and soon after 
made a successful attack upon the forts. The recent cruelty 
of Melendes and his company excited revenge and retaliation. 
He took the forts ; put most of the Spaniards to the sword, 
and having burned and demolished all their fortresses, returned 
to France. 

In 1576, Captain Frobisher was sent to find out a north-west 
passage to the East Indies. The first landing which he made 
on the coast was upon a cape, which he called Queen Elizabeth's 
Foreland. In coasting northerly he discovered the straits which 
bear his name. He prosecuted his search for a passage into the 

B 2 



198 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




western ocean, till he was prevented by the ice, and then re- 
turned to England. 

In 1579, Sir Humphrey Gilbert obtained a patent from Queen 
Elizabeth for lands not yet possessed by any Christian prince, 
provided he would take possession within six years. With this 
encouragement he sailed for America, and on the 1st of August 
1583, anchored in Conception Bay. Afterwards he discovered 
and took possession of St. John's Harbour, and the country 
south; but in pursuing his discoveries he was unfortunately 
lost, and the intended settlement was prevented. 

In 1584, two patents were granted by Queen Elizabeth, one 
to Adrian Gilbert, (Feb. 6,) the other to Sir Walter Raleigh, for 
lands not possessed by any Christian prince. By the direction 
of Sir Walter, two ships were fitted and sent out, under the 
command of Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow. In July they 
arrived on the coast, and anchored in a harbour seven leagues 
west of the Roanoke. On the 13th of July, they took possession 
of the country, and, in honour of their virgin Queen Elizabeth, 
they called it Virginia, which for some time after became the com • 
men name for all North America. 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF NORTH AMERICA. 199 




THE SETTLE MEM AT ROANOKE. 



In 1585, Sir Walter Raleigh sent Sir Richard Grenville to 
America with seven ships. He arrived at Wococon harbour in 
June. Having stationed a colony of more than a hundred people 
at Roanoke, under the direction of Captain Ralph Lane, he 
coasted north-east as far as Chesapeake Bay. The colony under 
Captain Lane endured extreme hardships, and must have per- 
ished, had not Sir Francis Drake fortunately returned to Vir- 
ginia and carried them to England, after having made several 
conquests for the queen in the West Indies and other places. 
A fortnight after. Sir Richard Grenville arrived with new re- 
cruits, and left fifty men at the same place. 

In 1587, Sir Walter sent another company to Virginia, un- 
der Governor White, with a charter, and twelve assistants. In 
July he arrived at Roanoke. Not one of the second company 
remained. He determined, however, to risk a third colony. Ac- 
cordingly he left a hundred and fifteen people at the old settle- 
ment, and returned to England. On the 13th of August, 1587. 
Manteo.was baptized in Virginia. He was the first native In- 
dian who received that ordinance in that part of America. On' 
the 18th, Mrs. Dare was delivered of a daughter, whom she 



200 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

called Virginia. She was the first English child that was born 
in North America. In 1590, Governor White came over to Vir- 
ginia with supplies and recruits for his colony ; but, to his great 
grief, not a man was to be found. They had all miserably fam- 
ished with hunger, or had been massacred by the Indians. 

In 1602, Bartholomew Gofnold, with thirty-two persons, made 
a voyage to North Virginia, and discovered and gave names to 
Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Elizabeth Islands, and to 
Dover Cliff. Elizabeth Island was the place which they fixed 
for their settlement. But the courage of those who should have 
remained failing, they al^returned to England. All the at- 
tempts to settle this continent which were made by the Dutch, 
French, and English, from its discovery to the present time, a 
period of a hundred years, proved ineffectual. The Spaniards 
only, of all the European nations, had been successful. There 
is no account of t^ere having been one European family, at 
this time, in all the vast extent of coast from Florida to Green- 
land. 

In 1603, Martin Pring and William Brown were sent by Sir 
Walter Raleigh, with two small vessels, to make discoveries 
in North Virginia. They came upon the coast, which was 
broken with a multitude of islands, in 43° 30' north latitude. 
They coasted southward to Cape Cod Bay ; thence round the 
cape into a commodious harbour in latitude 41° 25', where they 
went ashore and tarried seven weeks, during which time they 
loaded one of their vessels with sassafras, and returned to Eng- 
land. 

Bartholomew Gilbert, in a voyage to South Virginia, in search 
of the third colony which had been left there by Governor White 
in 1587, having touched at several of the West India Islands, 
landed near Chesapeake Bay, where, in a skirmish with the In- 
dians, he and four of his men were unfortunately slain. The 
rest, without any farther search for the colony, returned to Eng- 
land. 

France, being at this time in a state of tranquillity, in con- 
sequence of the edict of Nantz in favour of the Protestants 
passed by Henry IV. in 1598, and of the peace with Philip king 
of Spain and Portugal, was induced to pursue her discoveries in 
America. Accordingly the king signed a patent in favour of 
De Mons, in 1603, of all the country from the 40th to the 46th 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION OF NORTH AMERICA. 201 

degrees of north latitude, under the name of Acadia. Next 
year De Mons ranged the coast from St. Lawrence to Cape Sa- 
ble, and so round Cape Cod. 

In May, 1605, George's Island and Pentecost harbour were 
discovered by Captain George Weymouth. In May he entered 
a large river in latitude 43° 20', (variation 11° 15' west,) which 
Mr. Prince, in his chronology, supposes must have been Saga- 
dahok ; but from the latitude it was more probably the Pisca- 
taqua. Captain Weymouth carried with him to England five 
of the natives. 




26 



202 INCIDENTS OP MODERN HISTORY 





SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 

N the year 1608, Captain Newport sailed 
from England 'with three ships and one 
hundred and five men, who were destined 
^M to remain in the country which they were 
about to visit. Among these were some 
gentlemen of distinguished families, par- 
ticularly Mr. Percy, brother to the earl of 
Northumberland, and several oflBcers of reputation, who had 
carried arms during the reign of Elizabeth, Though they fol- 
■ lowed the old course, and sailed towards the West Indies, yet 
when they had reached the American shore, they were driven 
to the north of Roanoke by a storm, and accidentally discovered 
Cape Henry. This is the southern boundary of Chesapeake 
Bay. They stretched at once into that noble harbour, which 
receives the waters of the Powhatan, the Potomac, the Susque- 
hanna, and all the rivers which give fertility to this part of 
America, and adapt it so wonderfully to the purposes of inland 
navigation. Newport sailed up the Powhatan, to which he gave 
the name of James River, in honour of the sovereign under whose 
authority he acted ; and here he chose a place of residence for 
the adventurers who were to settle in the country. They raised 
a few huts to protect them from the inclemency of the weather : 
and the council who were nominated by the king, and were to 
reside in America, opened their commissions and entered upon 
their office. The infant settlement was called Jamestown ; an 
appellation which it still retains ; and, though it never rose to 
great wealth or distinction, it was the first of the English es- 
tablishments in the New World, and has all the honour among 
the American States that antiquity can confer. 

The Indians among whom the European adventurers had 
settled were divided into small and independent tribes, and sepa- 
rated from one another by hereditary andunabating resentment. 




CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. 



SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 205 

They were able, however, to disturb the colony by their petty 
hostilities ; though they could not, at this time, muster a force 
sufficient to destroy it. But this was not the only calamity 
which the Europeans were doomed to suffer. The stock of pro- 
visions which they had brought with them from England was 
nearly exhausted ; and what remained was of a quality so bad, 
that it was unfit to be eaten. This scanty allowance to which 
they were reduced, as well as the influence of a climate to which 
they were not yet habituated, gave rise to diseases, and quick- 
ened their virulence ; so that the number of the colonists gradu- 
ally diminished. In this exigency, they were relieved by the 
talents and activity of Captain Smith. Immediately after the 
arrival of the settlers, and in consequence of the disagreements 
which had taken place during the voyage, he had been expelled 
from the council, though chosen by the king as one of its mem- 
bers ; but such were his abilities and enterprising temper, that 
he was now unanimously called to his seat, and invited to take 
a chief part in the administration. He was not unworthy of 
the charge, or unequal to the duties which his situation required. 
He fortified Jamestown, so as to protect the colonists from the 
injuries of the savages. He marched in quest of those tribes 
who had given most disturbance to the Europeans ; and partly 
by address and good treatment, he put an end to their hostilities, 
and procured from them a supply of provisions, of which the 
colony was so much in need. By the exertions of Smith, con- 
tentment was speedily restored ; and this he considered as a 
sufficient recompense for all his toils and dangers. But, unfor- 
tunately, in one of his excursions, he was surprised by a nu- 
merous party of Indians, and compelled to retreat; and the 
savages pressing hard upon him, he sunk to the neck in a 
morass, and was taken prisoner. He was carried to Powhatan, 
the most considerable sachem or chief of Virginia, and would 
have sufi'ered a cruel death, if Pocahontas, the daughter of 
Powhatan, animated by that concern for the English which the 
adventurers from the west never failed to experience, had not 
rushed between him and the executioner, and begged her father 
to spare his life. Her request was granted ; and she afterwards 
procured him his liberty ; and from time to time sent provisions 
to the colony. 

When Smith returned to Jamestown, he found no more than 

S 



206 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




CAPTAIN BMIIH EXPLORING CHESAPEAKE BAT. 



thirty-eight persons within the walls which he had lately raised. 
The spirits of the colony were completely broken. Every indi- 
vidual was filled with despondency, and anxious to leave a country 
which was so inhospitable. He prevailed upon them, however, 
to remain for some time ; and provisions arriving from England, 
abundance and satisfaction were happily restored. Smith had 
formed a determination of visiting and examining the country 
in the neighbourhood of the place where the English had settled ; 
and, in order to prosecute his design, he embarked with a hand- 
ful of adventurers (a. d. 1609) in an open boat, ill adapted to 
the purposes for which it was intended. He advanced towards 
the north, as far as the river Susquehanna, and visited the 
country both on the east and the west ; and trading with some 
of the natives, and fighting with others, he taught them to re- 
spect the English for their superiority in knowledge and in arts, 
and to dread the operation of the weapons which they used. He 
afterwards made a second excursion ; and at length drew out a 
map of the creeks and inlets which he had entered, as well as 
the adjacent country, with such accuracy that his delineation 
has served as a basis and a model for all those who have since 
attempted to exhibit the geography of the United States. 

In the same year, (1609,) a remarkable change took place in 
the constitution of the colony. A new charter was issued, of a 
more enlarged and liberal nature than the former. The boun- 
daries of the settlement were extended ; the council resident in 
America was abolished, and the administration of affairs vested 
in a council, resident in London. A numerous body of respect- 



SETTLEMENT OF VIRGINIA. 207 

able merchants and others were joined to the former adventu- 
rers, and the J were all incorporated under the name of " The 
Treasurer and Company of Adventurers of the city of London, 
for the first colony in Virginia." The proprietors of this com- 
pany were allowed to chose the persons of whom the council was 
to be composed ; and powers were granted them to elect a gover- 
nor, who was to manage their affairs in the colony, and to exe- 
cute the orders which should be issued from England. They 
were farther authorized to enact such laws, and introduce such 
regulations, as they should judge most advantageous for the 
settlers in America. These ample privileges were conferred in 
an age when privileges of a similar nature were not often con- 
ferred ; but it is probable, that James, with all his sagacity, did 
not perceive the consequences in which they were likely to ter- 
minate. 

As soon as the company had got the management of their 
affairs into their own hands, the proprietors daily increased both 
in numbers and respectability. 




208 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 




HE eiForts of the company at Ply- 
mouth were neither so vig- 
orous, nor at first so suc- 
cessful, as those of the 
company in London. 

For a while their at- 
tempts were limited to voy- 
ages made for the pui-pose 
of taking fish, or, at most, 
of trading with the na- 
tives, and procuring furs. 
In one of these attempts, Captain Smith, of whom we have 
spoken in the history of Virginia, explored with accuracy 
(a. d. 1614) that part of the American coast which stretches 
from Penobscot to Cape Cod ; and having delineated a map of 
the country, he presented it to Charles, prince of Wales, who 
gave to the region that Smith had visited the name of New 
England, which it still retains. 

But what the exertions of the company were unable to ac- 
complish, was efiected by a principle which has, at all times, had 
a chief share in the revolutions that take place in human affairs. 
When the light of the Reformation had dawned upon Europe, 
the extravagant doctrines and absurd practices of the Romish 
church filled the minds of those who had ventured to think freely 
on religious topics, with horror and irreconcilable aversion. 
The spirit which prevailed at that time was by no means satis- 
fied either with the partial changes which took place in the 
reigns of Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, or the imperious manner 
in which these sovereigns dictated a creed to their people ; and 
the less so, as the opinions of the royal theologians themselves, 
especially those of the former, had undergone considerable al- 
terations. Elizabeth, determined that all her subjects should 



SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 211 

conform to the belief which she had chosen for them, established 
a High Commission for ecclesiastical alTiiirs ; with powers not 
inferior, or less hostile to the rights of conscience, than those of 
the Inquisition in Spain. Some attempts were made in the 
House of Commons to check these arbitrary and odious pro- 
ceedings : but Elizabeth interfered with her prerogative, and the 
guardians of the people were silent. They even consented to 
an act, by which those who should be absent from church for a 
month were subjected to a fine and imprisonment, and, if they 
persisted in their obstinacy, to death without benefit of clergy. 
In consequence of this iniquitous statute, and the distresses in 
which the Puritans were involved, a body of them, called 
Brownists from the name of their founder, left England, and 
settled at Leyden, in Holland, under the care of Mr. John Ro- 
binson^ their pastor. But this situation at length proving dis- 
agreeable to them, and their children intermarrying with the 
Dutch, they were apprehensive lest their church, which they re- 
garded as a model of untarnished purity, should gradually decay ; 
and having obtained a promise from James I. that they should' 
not be molested in the exercise of their religion, they fled to 
America, and founded the colony of New Plymouth. They con- 
tinued for some time to adhere to their religious opinions, but 
never became so numerous as to attract, in any great degree, the 
attention of the mother country. They were afterwards united 
to the colony of Massachusetts Bay, the origin and progress of 
Avhich we shall now relate. 

From the tranquillity which the Brownists had enjoyed at New 
Plymouth, and the sufferings to which those who held the same 
opinions were exposed in England, an association was formed by 
Mr. White, a clergyman at Dorchester, in order to lead a new 
colony to that part of America, where their brethren were set- 
tled. They applied to the Grand Council of Plymouth, of which 
the duke of Lennox and the marquis of Buckingham were mem- 
bers, (for the original company had been dissolved by the au- 
thority of the king,) and purchased from them all that part of 
New England which lies three miles to the south of Charles 
river, and three miles to the north of Merrimac river, and ex- 
tends from the Atlantic Ocean to the South Sea. They obtained 
a charter from Charles L, by which the same ample privileges 
were conferred upon them which James had conferred upon the 



212 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

two companies of Virginia ; and they obtained it with a facility 
which appears to us altogether unaccountable, when we think of 
the principles and views of those to whom it was granted. They 
embarked, to the number of three hundred, in five ships, (a. d. 
1629,) and landed at New England. They found there the re- 
mains of a small body of Puritans, who had left their country 
the year before, under Endicott, a frantic enthusiast ; and 
uniting with these, they settled at a place to which Endicott had 
given the name of Salem. This was the first permanent town 
in Massachusetts. 

All these emigrants were Puritans of the strictest sort, and 
their notions of eclesiastical affairs were reduced to the lowest 
standard of Calvinistic simplicity. But with an inconsistency 
of which there are many examples, and with which no particular 
sect can be charged to the exclusion of others, the very men 
who had just escaped from the intolerance of persecution in 
England, shortly after their arrival, banished two of their num- 
ber from the settlement, on account of a difference in religious 
opinion. 

. It was by no means agreeable to the planters in America 
that they should be governed by the company in England, the 
members of which were at a distance, and unacquainted with 
their circumstances ; and not a few of the proprietors them- 
selves were disheartened by the oppression of Laud, and eager 
to be disengaged from an adventure which was yet unpromising. 
It was therefore determined, by general consent, that " the char- 
ter should be transferred, and the government of the corporation 
settled in Massachusetts Bay." This is perhaps the most re- 
markable occurrence in the history of English colonization. 
The right of the company to make such a transference is very 
questionable. The indifference of the king in allowing it to 
take place is no less astonishing : but he was engaged at this 
time in disputes with his parliament, and perhaps was not dis- 
pleased that a body of his subjects, who were known for their 
dislike to his government, were removed to a country where their 
turbulent spirit could not so easily prove dangerous to his in- 
terests. Whatever was the reason of Charles's connivance, the 
adventurers proceeded without delay to execute their plans. In 
a general court, Winthrop was chosen governor, and eighteen 
persons were nominated his assistants; and in these, together 




W I K T H R p. 



SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 



215 




SETTLEMENT OF BOSTON. 



with a body of freemen who should settle in New England, all 
the rights of the company were vested. In consequence of this 
alteration, seventeen vessels and three hundred planters sailed 
for America. As soon as they arrived at New England, they 
explored the country in quest of a better station than that of 
Endicott at Salem, and laid the foundations of many towns, 
especially those of Charlestown and Boston. 

As the same causes which at first led to emigration continued 
to operate, the number of the settlers increased, by arrivals from 
Europe almost every year. Among those who left their country 
about this time were two persons, afterwards distinguished on 
a more conspicuous theatre — Peters, the chaplain and assistant 
of Oliver Cromwell, and Mr. Vane, son to Sir Henry Vane, a 
man of note, a privy-councillor, and of great influence with the 
king. Mr. Vane was received by the planters with the fondest 
admiration. His grave and mortified appearance, and his repu- 
tation for wisdom and piety, together with the attention which 
he paid to the leading members of the church, all conspired to 
render him the favourite of the people ; and he was appointed 
to the ofiice of governor with universal approbation. But the 
part which he took in the religious disputes which then agitated 



216 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

the colony, detaching many of his adherents from his interest, 
he quitted America in disgust, unregretted even by those "whc 
had so lately admired him. 

Besides the meetings for the worship of God on Sunday, and 
the lecture every Thursday, the inhabitants of Boston assembled 
on the other days of the week for the purposes of religious con- 
ference and theological discussion. With a propriety which has 
not always distinguished the enthusiastic and the visionary, the 
females were strictly excluded from these assemblies. But Mrs. 
Hutchinson, a woman of some talents, and not deficient in elo- 
quence, instituted a meeting of the sisters also ; and her lec- 
tures were at first attended by many respectable persons of her 
own sex. The number of these daily increased. The doctrines 
of Mrs. Hutchinson soon became public and generally known : 
and Vane, the governor, whose prudence always forsook him 
when his thoughts were turned towards religious subjects, es- 
poused the wildest of her tenets with the zeal which character- 
ized the times in which he lived. She maintained, that purity of 
life was not an evidence of acceptance with God ; that those who 
inculcated the necessity of a virtuous conduct preached only 
a covenant of works ; and that as the Holy Ghost dwells per- 
sonally in such as are justified, they have no occasion for posi- 
tive laws to regulate their actions. These tenets, equally hostile 
to good sense and pernicious to society, were adopted and de- 
fended by many of the colonists. Mrs. Hutchinson, in order to 
separate her followers from such as opposed her, drew a marked 
line of distinction between them ; the former she described as 
under a covenant of grace, and in a state of favour with the 
Almighty ; and the latter, as under a covenant of works, and 
the objects of his displeasure. Dissensions prevailed and rose 
to a great height. Religious conferences were held ; days of 
fasting and humiliation were appointed ; a general synod was 
called ; and, at last, to the honour of our rational natui'e, Mrs. 
Hutchinson's opinions were condemned as erroneous ; and she 
herself was banished from the colony. It was after this de- 
sision that Yane quitted the settlement. 

But whatever the pernicious consequences of these theological 
disputes might be, they certainly contributed to the more speedy 
population of America. The proceedings against Mrs. Hutch- 
inson excited no little disgust in the minds of those who adhered 




28 



SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 



219 




BANISHMENT OF B0O£R WILLIAMS. 



to her sentiments. A party of these, withdrawing from the com- 
munion of their brethren, joined themselves to the disciples of 
Williams, who was banished from Salem in the year 1634; and 
purchasing from the Indians an island in Narraganset Bay, they 
gave to it the name of Rhode Island, and settled there. The 
colony of Connecticut owes its origin to the dissensions between 
Hooker and Cotton, two favourite preachers in Massachusetts ; 
and those of New Hampshire and Maine, chiefly to the separa- 
tion of Wheelwright, a proselyte of Mrs. Hutchinson, from the 
rest of the community in the same province. 

These new establishments exposed the English to great 
dangers from the Indians, by whom they were surrounded. The 
Pequods, an ancient and martial tribe, were the first who took 
the alai-m. Relinquishing their former animosities, they pro- 
posed to the Narragansets that they should unite against the 
common enemy ; whose numbers became every day more for- 
midable, and whose progress threatened them both with indis- 
criminate ruin. But such was the love of revenge, or the want 



220 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORT. 

of foresight on the part of the Narragansets, that, instead of 
joining with the Pequods in defence of their country and their 
freedom, they communicated the proposal which had been made 
to them to the governor of Massachusetts Bay, and united with 
him against the Indians whom it was the English interest to 
oppose. The Pequods, exasperated rather than discouraged, 
took the field, and laid siege to Fort Saybrooke. Captain Ten- 
derhill w'as despatched to its relief; and it was agreed by the 
colonies of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut, that they 
should march next year into the country of the enemy, and put 
a final termination to their hostilities. The troops of Connec- 
ticut were first in motion. But the colony of Massachusetts wa? 
divided about the covenant of works and the covenant of grace. 
It was found that some, both of the officers and men who were 
to fight its battles, were yet under the covenant of works ; the 
others therefore declared, that the blessing of God could not 
rest on the arms of such as differed from them on this metaphy- 
sical question ; and it was not till after much alarm, and many 
changes, that they were sufficiently pure to begin the w^ar. In 
the meanwhile, the troops of Connecticut wore obliged to ad- 
vance against the enemy. The Indians were posted on a rising 
ground, not far from the head of the river Mystic, and had for- 
tified themselves with palisadoes, the only method of defence 
with which they were acquainted. They had been deceived by 
the movement of the English vessels from Saybrooke, to Narra- 
ganset ; and, imagining that the expedition was abandoned, had 
given themselves up to riot and security. At the break of day, 
w^hile the Indians were overpowered with sleep, the colonists ap- 
proached ; and had not the savages been alarmed by the barking 
of a dog, their surprise and destruction would have been com- 
plete. They instantly raised the war-cry, and fiew to such arms 
as they possessed. But though their courage was great, they 
were speedily discomfited by the discipline and bravery of the 
Europeans. The English shot at them through the palisadoes, 
forced their way through the works, and set fire to their huts. 
Many of the women and children perished in the flames. The 
confusion and terror became general, and scarcely any of the 
party escaped. This blow was follow'ed by others equally effec- 
tual. The troops of Connecticut being reinforced at length by 
those of Massachusetts, they pursued the enemy from one retreat 



SETTLEMENT OF NEW ENGLAND. 



221 




UASSACKE OF THE PIQUODS. 



to another ; and in less than three months, the Pequods were so 
completely extirpated, that their very name as a tribe was lost. 
A few individuals, who escaped the general carnage, were incor- 
porated with the neighbouring Indians. 

In consequence of this decisive campaign, which was marked 
by cruelties required neither by good policy nor by necessity, 
the English enjoyed a long tranquillity in all their colonies. 




t2 



222 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



RISE OF WALLENSTEIN. 




LBERT of Wallenstein was a Bohe- 
mian by birth, and had been brought 
up in the Protestant faith. AVhile a 
schoolboy at Goldberg in Silesia, he 
had dreamed, like the patriarch Jo- 
seph, that the trees of the forest as 
well as his fello-w-students bowed down 
and did homage before him ; and, at a 
later period, had studied in Italy the 
mystical science which taught him to read his future destiny 
in those fanciful combinations of the stars named by astrologers 
the houses of heaven. Entering the Imperial army, he distin- 
guished himself in Hungary against the Turks ; and, having 
subsequently married a rich widow, raised with her money a 
regiment of cuirassiers, which did the emperor good service 
during the Bohemian insurrection. By a second wealthy mar 
riage, and the favour of his master, who conferred on him the 
dukedom of Friedland, Wallenstein became so powerful that, 
when it was proposed to him to raise a force of 20,000 men, he 
at once declared that he was willing to bring 50,000 into the 
field. This proposal was eagerly embraced by the emperor, 
who nominated him generalissimo of the Imperial forces. In a 
few months Wallenstein, by dint of profuse gifts and still more 
liberal promises, had collected an army of adventurers from all 
the countries of Europe. The discipline of this ill-assorted 
body was suited to the character of those Avho composed it. 
Wallenstein allowed no priests in the camp, winked at the irre- 
gularities of his men when they did not interfere with military 
duty, rewarded with princely munificence those who distin- 
guished themselves, and promoted the bravest of his common 
soldiers to posts of honour. To increase his influence over these 
wild mercenaries, Wallenstein afi'ected a mysterious adoration 




WALI.K«3TE1!(. 



RISE OF WALLENSTEIN. 225 

of the goddess Fortune, -whose name he adopted as the watch- 
word of his army. Hints also of midnight communings with 
disembodied spirits were uttered under their breath by the su- 
perstitious troopers, whenever their general, after a night spent 
in his astrological studies, appeared in the camp with a counte- 
nance so haggard and ghastly as well-nigh to warrant the be- 
lief that his hours of retirement had been passed in converse 
with the powers of darkness. Wallenstein's great object, in 
assuming this command, was to restore the Imperial power in 
its fullest extent : " We want no princes," he was wont to say, 
" but a single master, as in France and Spain." As the only 
opposition to this plan was in the North of Germany, (for the 
weak southern princes were already subjugated,) Wallenstein, in 
conjunction with Tilly, marched into Holstein, and having com- 
pelled the king of Denmark to sign an ignominious peace, ap- 
peared with his army before the strongly fortified town of Stral- 
sund, which would have surrendered at the first summons, had 
not the burghers, disgusted at the cowardice of their magis- 
trates, taken the matter into their own hands, and prepared for 
an obstinate resistance. Irritated at this disappointment, Wal- 
lenstein swore that he would take the place, though it were 
bound to heaven with chains of iron ; but the brave citizens, 
reinforced by two thousand Swedes and a body of Scotch mer- 
cenaries in the pay of Denmark, made so obstinate a defence 
that he was compelled to raise the siege after losing 12,000 
men. This check decided for the present the fate of Europe. 
Wallenstein, no longer deemed invincible, and violently opposed 
by the Jesuits, fell into disgrace, and, being formally deprived 
of his command, retired to Prague. His army was partly dis- 
banded, and partly incorporated with the troops of Tilly, who 
proceeded to invest Magdeburg, where the people had success- 
fully resisted an edict of the emperor for the suppression of 
Protestant worship. 




29 



226 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GU3TAVU8 ADOIPHUS. 



EVENTS OF THE THIRTY TEARS' WARr-GUS- 
TAVUS ADOLPHUS— BATTLE OF LEIPSIC. 




ROM Holland to the Carintliian moun- 
tains, and from Prussia to the Alps of 
Berne, wherever the German tongue was 
spoken, Luther's and Calvin's doctrines 
had penetrated, and found a way to the 
hearts of the people. With the excep- 
tion of Bavaria and the Tyrol, every dis- 
trict of Germany had at one time or other fought for liberty of 
conscience ; yet there now remained no vestige of it except in 
the single city of Magdeburg, whose brave defenders still held 
out against the assaults of Tilly. In the midst of this melan- 
choly prospect, a new ray of hope broke through the clouds 
which hovered over Protestant Germany. The throne of 
Sweden was at this time occupied by Gustavus Adolphus, a 
zealous and sincere supporter of the Reformation, who had 
long witnessed with grief the sufferings of his brethren in Ger 
many, but had hitherto been debarred from rendering them any 



EVENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 227 

assistance by the wars in which he was engaged with Denmark 
and Poland. Yet these very wars had given him that unri- 
valled military knowledge which afterwards produced such glo- 
rious results. His Swedes were the best and most formidable 
soldiers of that day, warlike by nature, hardened by their se- 
vere climate, thoroughly disciplined, experienced in the field, 
full of confidence, and, more than all, inspired by a strong 
religious conviction that the cause for which they drew their 
swords was favoured by the Almighty. As soon, therefore, as 
Gustavus had secured an honourable peace with Denmark and 
Poland, he had both leisure to undertake, and thousands of 
brave spirits ready to aid him in accomplishing, the defence of 
his brethren in Germany. Besides his zeal for the common 
cause, the Swedish king had also private injuries to avenge : 
Austrians had fought against him in the ranks of the Polish 
army, and Wallenstein had insulted his ambassador, without his 
having been able in either case to obtain satisfaction. On the 
20th of May, 1630, Gustavus Adolphus entered the senate- 
house at Stockholm, to take a solemn farewell of the estates of 
his kingdom. He had already made the necessary arrange- 
ments for the administration of public afiairs during his ab- 
sence, and set his house in order, as one who was about to go 
forth to death. Taking his young daughter Christina in his 
arms, he presented her to the estates as his successor, and 
caused them to swear fidelity to her, in the event of his never 
returning. He then read a paper, in which his wishes respecting 
the government of the country during his absence, or, in case 
of his death, during the minority of his daughter, were dis- 
tinctly explained. The whole assembly melted into tears, and 
the king himself was so deeply afi'ected, that some minutes 
elapsed before he could summon sufficient firmness to pronounce 
his farewell address. " It is not lightly, or without due delibe- 
ration," thus he began, "that I involve myself and you in this 
new and dangerous war. Almighty God is my witness, that I 
fight not for mine own pleasure. The emperor has offered me, 
in the person of my ambassador, the grossest insults ; he has 
assisted my enemies, my friends and brethren he persecutes, 
tramples my religion in the dust, and stretches out his hand to 
seize my crown. The oppressed people of Germany urgently 
implore our aid, and, if it please God, they shall not be disap- 



228 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

pointed. I know the dangers to which my life will be exposed: 
these I have never shunned, nor do I hope eventually to escape 
them. It is true that, until the present hour, the Almighty hath 
marvellousl}^ preserved me : but I shall die at last in defence 
of my native land. I commend you all to the protection of 
Heaven. Be upright, be conscientious, walk unblamably : so shall 
we meet one another again in eternity. To you, my counsellors, 
I first address myself, — may God enlighten you, and fill you 
with wisdom, that you may ever advise that which conduces 
most to the welfare of my kingdom. You, brave nobles, I 
commend to the protection of God. Go forth, and prove your- 
selves worthy descendants of those heroic Goths who laid an- 
cient Rome in the dust. You, ministers of the church, I exhort 
to unanimity and concord. Be yourselves ensamples of those 
virtues which ye preach, and abuse not your dominion over the 
souls of my people. To you, deputies of the burgher and pea- 
sant orders, I wish the blessing of Heaven, a joyful harvest to 
reward your toils, fulness to your barns, and abundance of all 
the good things of life. For all, absent as well as present, I 
offer my prayers to Heaven. I now bid you affectionately fare- 
well — Farewell ! perhaps for ever." On the 24th of June, the 
hundredth anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, Gustavus 
Adolphus landed at Usedom in the midst of a violent thunder- 
storm. As soon as he touched the German soil, he fell on his 
knees, and called God to witness that this campaign was under- 
taken, not for his own honour, but in the cause of the gospel. 
His army at this time consisted of only 16,000 men, among 
whom were thirty companies of Germans ; and so little sensa- 
tion did his landing produce, that the people of Vienna called 
him in derision the " Snow King," who would melt away as he 
approached the south. The Protestants, on the other hand, 
looked to him as their deliverer, and named him the " Lion of 
the North." He was of gigantic height, with an open counte- 
nance, large blue eyes, and a mild but majestic bearing; pre- 
senting in his whole appearance a remarkable contrast to the 
gloomy Wallenstein, the ferocious Tilly, and most of the Ger- 
man princes, who affected a mysterious demeanour, to cover 
their low plans of personal ambition. Finding himself unsup- 
ported by the northern Protestants, Gustavus told the duke of 
Mecklenburg, it was his intention to march on Magdeburg, and 



EVENTS OF THE THIRTY TEARS' WAR. 229 

relieve that city: " If none will stand by me," continued he, 
«I shall at once retire, make the best peace I can with the 
emperor, and return to Stockholm. This I shall have little 
difficulty in effecting : but at the day of judgment you must 
give an account for having abandoned the cause of God and 
of his gospel — yea, even in this world you will have your re- 
ward." The electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, who were 
well aware how valuable their friendship must be to either side, 
held back for a time, observing an armed neutrality, which 
Gustavus would not break up by violent means, lest he should 
at once furnish them with an excuse for joining the emperor. 
This unfortunate delay decided the fate of Magdeburg, which 
had received no aid from Gustavus except the sending them one 
of his officers. Colonel Falkenstein, who entered the place in 
the disguise of a boatman, and took command of the feeble 
and dispirited garrison. On the night of the 10th of May, 
1631, the Imperial party within the walls called loudly for sur- 
render. At four o'clock in the morning, Falkenstein hastened 
to the town-hall, and, while he was in consultation with the 
magistrates, Pappenheim, without waiting for orders from Tilly, 
scaled the walls at a place where the sentinel was unfortunately 
asleep, and before an alarm could be given, appeared with his 
men in front of the hall. Falkenstein rushed out, and was 
instantly shot dead. Still the citizens, in spite of the over- 
whelming force brought against them, resisted bravely, until 
their powder failed, when they were obliged to surrender at 
discretion. Meanwhile the rest of the Imperialists had entered 
at two undefended gates, and a scene ensued too horrible for 
description. Even a humane general might have found it im- 
possible to restrain such troops in the moment of victory ; but 
this the ferocious old man who commanded the Imperialists did 
not even attempt. Some officers, who implored him to have 
mercy on the unresisting citizens, were ordered to return in an 
hour ; " I will then," said he, " see what can be done ; but the 
soldier must have something for his labour and danger." In 
less than half that time, the work of blood was at its height. 
The furious soldiers spared neither age nor sex. Almost all 
the men were beheaded, and a great number of the women. 
Two clergymen were slain as they stood before the altar. On 
entering the town, Pappenheim had ordered some houses to be 

U 



230 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

set on fire ; the wind being strong, the flames soon spread, and 
in a short time the whole city, with the exception of a few 
houses and the cathedral, was a heap of ashes. These scenes 
continued until the 13th, when Tilly himself entered, and re- 
stored discipline. Four thousand persons, who had taken re- 
fuge in the fire-proof cathedral, were admitted to quarter, and 
for the first time during three days obtained something to eat. 
It is said that they owed this favour to the vanity of Tilly, who 
was flattered at being addressed in a Latin oration by one of 
their preachers. The terrible commander, in a sort of masque- 
rading dress, which at any other time would have excited 
laughter, — wearing a short jacket of green satin, and a high- 
crowned hat with a long red feather which drooped over his 
ghastly countenance, his whole appearance being, we are told, 
that of a lunatic mountebank, — rode slowly through the town, 
gloating on the heaps of dead bodies with which the streets 
were covered. In a letter to the emperor, he speaks of this 
scene of murder and desolation as the greatest victory that had 
been achieved since the taking of Troy and Jerusalem. "And 
sincerely," he adds, " do I pity the ladies of your Imperial 
family, that they could not be present as spectators of the 
same." Gustavus Adolphus now resolved, come what might, 
no longer to spare the electors whose indecision had caused this 
terrible calamity. On the 11th of June, he appeared before 
Berlin, and ofi"ered George William the choice either of instantly 
joining him, or seeing his capital laid in ashes. The terrified 
elector, after a little resistance, signed the treaty of alliance ; 
and Gustavus garrisoned the fortresses of Berlin, Spandau, and 
KUstrin. Tilly, having been repulsed on the Hessian frontier, 
had marched to the great plain of Leipzic, in the hope of ter- 
rifying the elector of Saxony into an alliance : but that prince 
now declared himself on the side of the Swedes ; and eighteen 
thousand Saxons having joined Gustavus Adolphus, the allied 
army advanced on Leipzic, which was already in the hands of 
Tilly. The difi'erence between the Swedish and Imperial armies, 
which now met for the first time, was very remarkable. In the 
camp of Gustavus religious service was regularly performed, 
sometimes to the army in general, on which occasions the king 
was always present, sometimes by the chaplain of each regiment 
to those more immediately intrusted to his charge. The kind- 



EVENTS OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 231 

ness with which the Swedish soldiers treated the unarmed citi- 
zens and peasants, the strict morality of their lives, and the 
gentleness of their manners, rendered them universally objects 
of respect and love, and presented a striking contrast to the 
fearful oaths and shouts of licentious revelry with which Tilly's 
camp resounded day and night, and to the cruelties practised 
by his soldiers on the defenceless inhabitants. The Swedish 
troops had lately been equipped by Gustavus Adolphus with a 
view to rapid movements ; they therefore wore no armour, and 
were accompanied by only a very light train of field artillery. 
The Imperialists, on the contrary, wore cuirasses, greaves, and 
helmets, had much less discipline among them than the Swedes, 
and were encumbered by heavy ordnance. Tilly had intended 
to await the coming up of two of his generals with reinforce- 
ments, before he engaged the enemy ; although his own force 
amounted to 40,000 men, a number equal to that of the united 
Swedish and Saxon army ; but the impetuous Pappenheim hav- 
ing entangled himself in a skirmish with the Swedes, Tilly was 
obliged to march to his assistance, muttering, as he went, " That 
fellow will ruin me yet in honour and reputatioil, and the em- 
peror in land and people." Gustavus Adolphus, dressed in a 
simple gray surtout, with a white hat and gray feather, rode in 
front of the line, and exhorted his men to fight bravely. The 
Swedes composed the right wing, the Saxons the left. Tilly's 
army formed, according to the ancient mode of warfare, one 
long line ; but Gustavus had broken his force into several small 
masses. The imperial artillery was planted on the ridge of a 
low hill immediately behind the army. The battle began on 
the 7th of September, 1631, with a furious cannonade, which 
lasted two hours. Then Tilly, abandoning his position on the 
hills, marched to meet the Swedes ; but their fire was so galling 
that he was obliged to make a movement to the right, and at- 
tack the Saxons, who soon fled in confusion. Meanwhile Pap- 
penheim, at the head of his terrible cuirassiers, had seven times 
charged the Swedes, and as often been driven back with great 
loss. While Tilly was engaged with the Saxons, the Swedes 
attacked him in flank, captured his artillery, and, turning it 
against himself, threw both him and Pappenheim into irrecove- 
rable confusion. Four regiments of veterans, who had become 
gray in the Imperial service, resolved to be cut to pieces 



232 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

rather than yield. In detached bodies, they forced their way 
through the midst of the victorious army, and reached a little 
wood, where they continued to fight until night came on. The 
rest of the army fled in disorder, pursued by the Swedes, who 
cut down hundreds of the fugitives. In all the villages around 
the tocsin was rung, and the peasants rushed out to wreak ven- 
geance on their oppressors. Meanwhile Tilly, a veteran soldier 
of seventy-two years of age, who had never before either sus- 
tained a defeat or been wounded, stood like a monument of de- 
spair, stupified and motionless. Three bullets had already 
pierced his body ; but he refused to surrender himself, and a 
Swedish oflBcer (called by the soldiers " Long Fritz") was in the 
act of cutting him down, when he was rescued by Duke Ru- 
dolph of Lauenburg. The miserable remains of his army took 
refuge in Haberstadt, where Tilly joined them. During his 
flight the curses of the peasants rang in his ears, and he was 
exasperated beyond measure at hearing everywhere the words 
of a rude song, in which his defeat was celebrated, and the 
chorus " Fly, Tilly, fly !" howled by hundreds of voices. After 
this victory the country people rose in a mass, and joined the 
standard of Gustavus in such numbers that in a few days his 
army was stronger than it had been before the battle. 





30 



u2 



BATTLE OP LUTZBN. 



235 



DEATH OF TILLY— BATTLE OF LUTZEN— 
DEATH OF GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. 




EAVING his generals Baudis and 
Banner to follow up his successes in 
Northern Germany, Gustavus marched 
to Erfurt, and thence through the Thu- 
ringian forest to WUrtzburg, Frank- 
fort, and Mainz. Spiers, Landau, and 
many other places had already declared 
for the Swedes ; and the banks of the 
Rhine and the Neckar resounded with 
shouts of joy, as the army of the liberator advanced. The 
Swedish soldiers, on their part, delighted with the beauty of 
the country, and revelling in the unaccustomed luxuries of wine 
and wheaten bread, were eager to hold out the right hand of 
fellowship to men who received them so kindly. 

Ulm sent a deputation to congratulate Gustavus on his 
successes. The count palatine. Christian of Birkenfeld, re- 
cruited for his army ; Frederick of Bohemia returned to 
his palatinate; and, to crown the satisfaction of the Swedish 
king, his wife Eleanora joined him at Frankfort. Mean- 
while "that old devil, Tilly," (as Gustavus always called him,) 
had begun to rally, and, after taking the town of Rotenburg, 
was intrenching himself in a strong position at Rain on the 
Lech, in order to cover Bavaria. Maximilian, with a consider- 
able force, was also encamped in the same neighbourhood. The 
works on the Lech were nearly completed, when Gustavus, ad- 
vancing to the opposite bank of the river, commenced a cannon- 
ade, which was kept up during three days without intermission. 
At the end of that time, the Imperialists became first aware 
that the enemy's engineers, under cover of the smoke, had suc- 
ceeded in constructing a bridge, over which a considerable por- 



236 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

tion of their army had already crossed the river. In a trans- 
port of rage, Tilly rushed forward to meet the Swedes ; but 
his course was arrested by a cannon-ball, which shattered his 
thigh, and produced so ghastly a wound that he shortly after- 
wards died in great agony, advising the emperor, with his last 
breath, at whatever sacrifice of life or treasure, to secure Ra- 
tisbon; the key of Austria and Bavaria. Gustavus now marched 
to Augsburg, where he caused the gospel to be proclaimed, and 
thence to Munich, the gates of which were opened to him on 
his promising to spare the place. By his side rode Frederick, 
the deposed king of Bohemia, accompanied by his queen, and a 
large monkey dressed in the frock and hood of a Capuchin 
friar. In different parts of the city were found one hundred 
and forty pieces of cannon, which the Bavarians had buried, 
after filling them to the muzzle with gold and precious stones. 
Maximilian would gladly have made peace, but Gustavus Adol- 
phus, in no very courtly language, told him that he was not to 
be trusted, adding some coarse remarks better suited to the 
manners of that day than to the more refined taste of modern 
readers. The loss of Tilly now compelled the emperor to enter 
into negotiation with the only general who was capable of com- 
manding an Imperial army at this critical juncture. Since his 
disgrace, Wallenstein had been living at Prague in more than 
regal state. His palace stood on the sites of several hundred 
houses, which had been pulled down to make room for the build- 
ing : his gardens were full of handsome fountains and aviaries, 
some of which were so large that tall trees were enclosed within 
their wires : boys of noble family waited upon him as pages, 
and many of his former officers were still in his service. His 
smallest present was a thousand dollars ; the lightest punish- 
ment which he inflicted was death. During his retirement, he 
had been endeavouring to bring about an alliance between Den- 
mark, Saxony, and the empire, under the auspices, as it wa8 
generally supposed, of the emperor himself, although he after- 
wards thought proper to deny that he had corresponded with 
the duke of Friedland on that or any other subject during his 
banishment. The overtures of Ferdinand were received very 
coldly by Wallenstein, who refused to listen to any proposals 
until he was satisfied that the emperor was willing to reinstate 
him on terms dictated by himself. The conditions, which se- 



BATTLE OF LUTZEN. 237 

cured to him an irresponsible command, having been at last 
conceded, the new dictator commenced recruiting, and in a few 
months found himself at the head of a considerable army, with 
which he easily drove the Saxons out of Bohemia, Gustavus 
Adolphus had wished to return to Bavaria, and carry the war 
into the heart of the Romanist states ; but intelligence having 
reached him that Wallenstein had taken Leipzic, he at once 
determined to march northwards, and on the 27th of October 
arrived at Erfurt, where he took leave of his wife, with a me- 
lancholy foreboding that they were to meet no more on this side 
the grave. On the 1st of November he reached Naumberg, 
whither the inhabita.nts of the surrounding country flocked in 
crowds to gaze on the hero. Wherever he appeared, shouts of 
joy and affection welcomed him, thousands flinging themselves 
on their knees and struggling with one another for the privilege 
of kissing his feet or the sheath of his sword. This homage, 
although only the outpouring of gratitude and admiration, 
grievously disconcerted Gustavus. "Is it not," he said to his 
attendants, " as though this people were making a god of me? 
I pray that the vengeance of the Almighty may not fall on us 
for this audacious mummery, and show these foolish crowds but 
too soon that I am only a poor, weak, sinful mortal." " Thus," 
says Schiller, " did he prove himself doubly worthy of their 
tears, as the moment drew nigh which was to bid them flow." 
Having discovered through an intercepted letter that Pappen- 
heim had been detached to lay siege to Halle, and that the Im- 
perial troops were dispersed in winter-quarters, Gustavus aban- 
doned his intention of joining the elector, and advanced at once 
to attack Wallenstein. Three guns from the castle of Weissen- 
fels gave the signal to the Imperialists that the Swedish army 
was in sight. Wallenstein instantly drew his regiments together, 
and despatched messengers to command the immediate return 
of Pappenheim. On the 6th of November, Gustavus drew up 
his forces in nearly the same order which the year before had 
insured him the victory at Leipzic. The whole army formed 
two lines, having a canal on their right and in their rear, the 
high road in front, and the village of Liitzen on their left. The 
infantry, under Count von Brake, occupied the centre, the 
cavalry the wings, and the artillery the front of the whole line. 
Duke Bernard of Saxe Weimar commanded the left wing, and 



238 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

the king himself with his Swedish cavalry took up his position 
on the right. The order of battle of the second line was the 
same as that of the first ; and behind it was stationed a corps 
de reserve under the command of Henderson, a Scotchman. 
On the evening before the battle, Wallenstein deepened the 
trenches on each side of the high road which divided the two 
armies, and placed a strong body of musketeers behind the 
mounds formed by the earth thrown out of them. In the rear 
of these was a battery of seven heavy guns ; and on an emi- 
nence behind Liitzen, on which stood a windmill, were planted 
fourteen lighter pieces, which commanded a great part of the 
field. The infantry, in five unwieldy divisions, were stationed 
about three hundred paces in the rear of the high road, their 
flanks being covered by cavalry. To conceal his weakness, 
Wallenstein ordered all the horse-boys and camp-servants to 
mount and form on the left wing, where they were to remain 
until the arrival of Pappenheim should supply their places with 
more efficient warriors. All these dispositions were made in 
the dead of night ; and the two armies awaited the dawn of 
that bloody morning which should prove whether Gustavus was 
indebted for his previous successes to his own genius, or to the 
unskilfulness of his opponents. The day at length broke ; but 
an impenetrable fog lay spread over the whole plain, and pre- 
vented any movement of the two armies until near midday. In 
front of the Swedish line, Gustavus Adolphus knelt down, and 
offered up his prayer to the god of battles, while the whole 
army raised Luther's battle-hymn, "A steadfast fortress is our 
God," the field-music of the different regiments playing a solemn 
accompaniment. The king then mounted his horse, with no 
defence but a buff-coat, the pain of a recent wound rendering 
the weight and pressure of his armour insupportable ; and rode 
through the ranks, speaking cheerfully to the soldiers, and 
striving to inspire them with hopes which his own melancholy 
foreboding prevented him from feeling. " God with us," was 
the battle-cry of the Swedes; "Jesu Maria," that of the Im- 
perialists. The fog in some measure dispersing about eleven 
o'clock, the two armies began to be visible to each other, and 
at the same moment the village of Liitzen was discovered to be 
in flames, having been set on fire by order of the duke of Fried- 
land, lest he should be outflanked on that side. Half an hour 



BATTLE OF LUTZEN. 239 

later Gustavus gave the signal of attack, and the Swedish 
infantry rushed forward to carry the trenches, but a murderous 
fire of artillery and small arms compelled them to retreat. The 
voice of Gustavus soon rallied them, and they fought with great 
fury, but without making any impression on the Imperialists, 
until Colonel Winkel, with a regiment of cavalry, forced his 
way across two of the trenches, followed by the Swedish body- 
guard. The battery was soon carried and the guns turned 
against the Imperialists, — then re-taken by Wallenstein, — and 
again carried by the Swedes, whose right wing was everywhere 
victorious, but their left, galled by the heavy fire from the 
windmill battery, was beginning to give way, when Gustavus 
rode forward for the purpose of rallying them. The swiftness 
of his horse rendering it impossible for the heavy cavalry to 
keep pace with their leader, he soon found himself almost alone 
in the midst of the enemy. Here a subaltern of the Imperial 
army, observing the respect with which the unknown officer 
was treated by his few followers, naturally concluded that he 
was a person of importance, and called out to a musketeer, 
<' Shoot that man, for I am sure he is an officer of high rank." 
The soldier immediately fired, and the king's left arm fell pow- 
erless by his side. At this moment a wild cry was raised, 
" The king bleeds ; the king is wounded." " It is nothing," 
shouted Gustavus ; "follow me." But the pain soon brought 
on faintness, and he desired the duke of Lauenburg, in French, 
to lead him out of the throng. While the duke was endea- 
vouring to withdraw him without being noticed by the troops, 
a second shot struck Gustavus and deprived him of his little 
remaining strength. "I have enough, brother," he said, in a 
feeble voice to the duke ; " try to save your own life." At the 
same moment he fell from his horse, and in a short time 
breathed his last. His horse, bathed in blood, and galloping 
wildly about the field, gave the first intimation to the Swedish 
cavalry that their king had fallen : a furious struggle for the 
recovery of his remains then took place between them and the 
Croatians ; and the disfigured corpse of Gustavus was soon 
buried beneath a heap of dead. Meanwhile, the sorrowful 
tidings had reached the main body, and goaded the Swedes 
almost to desperation. They fought with a fury which nothing 
could resist ; and the enemy was already retreating, when Pap- 



240 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

penheim appeared, and the battle began afresh. Nothing could 
exceed the fierceness of the second engagement. The Swedish 
yellow regiment, the flower of their army, lay dead, each man 
' in his rank, without having yielded an inch of ground. Count 
Piccoluomini, one of the Imperial generals, had seven horses 
shot under him, and received six wounds ; but would not quit 
his post until the battle was decided. Wallenstein rode through 
the field like one bearing a charmed life ; right and left his 
attendants fell, and his cloak was pierced through and through 
with bullets ; yet he escaped unwounded, to fall at last by the 
hand of an assassin. Pappenheim received two shots in his 
breast and was carried out of the battle. Whilst they were 
conveying him to the rear a rumour, reached him that his great 
rival was slain. The countenance of the dying man brightened 
at this intelligence. "Tell the duke of Fi-iedland," he said, 
" that I lie here without hope of life, but I die in peace, know- 
ing that the enemy of my faith has also fallen." The mists of 
evening put an end to the fight. So little were the Swedes 
aware of the advantage which they had gained, that the ques- 
tion of an immediate retreat was seriously discussed between 
Bernard of Saxe Weimar and General Kniphausen ; and great 
was their surprise when the light of morning made them aware 
that Wallenstein had withdrawn his troops and left them mas- 
ters of the field. Had Pappenheim's reinforcement arrived a 
few hours earlier, the event would probably have been different ; 
and even as it was, something might have been done to save 
the materiel of the army from falling into the enemy's hands ; 
but Pappenheim's fall and the disabled condition of most of his 
men seem to have paralyzed the hitherto fearless spirit of Wal- 
lenstein ; for leaving his artillery, his colours, and the greater 
part of his small arms on the field, he commenced a disorderly 
retreat towards Leipzic, and the next morning was followed by 
the miserable remnants of his army. He made, it is true, a 
feeble attempt to regain the ground, by sending out a body of 
Croatians to hover round the scene of action ; but the sight of 
the Swedish army, drawn up in good order between Llitzen and 
Weissenfels, soon scared away these irregular skirmishers ; and 
Bernard of Saxe Weimar, who succeeded Gusta\Tis in command 
of the Swedes, retained undisturbed possession of the field. 
But the victory was dearly purchased. More than nine thou- 



BATTLE OF LUTZEN. 241 

sand men lay dead on the field of battle : the whole plain, from 
Lutzen to the canal, was strewed with the wounded and the 
dying; the bodies of knights and nobles were mingled with 
those of the common soldiers ; and even an ecclesiastic, the 
Abbot of Ful'la, whose zeal for his faith had brought him to 
the field as a spectator, paid the penalty of his rashness with 
his life. But the most melancholy feature of the Swedish tri- 
umph was the loss of him who had died to achieve it. For a 
long time the body of Gustavus Adolphus lay concealed under 
the heaps of nameless dead, who had fallen later in the day. 
At length it was discovered near a large stone between Lutzen 
and the canal, covered with the most ghastly wounds, trampled 
on by the horses' hoofs, and stripped of its clothes and orna- 
ments by the hands of those wretches who follow a camp for 
the sake of plunder. Tears streamed down the cheeks of the 
rough soldiers as they followed in melancholy procession the 
remains of him who had so often led them to victory; and, 
when the bereft widow embraced his corpse at Weissenfels, a 
dismal murmur ran through the ranks, like the wailing of chil- 
dren over the grave of a beloved father. The buff-coat of Gus- 
tavus, covered with blood, had been torn from his body by the 
plunderers, and found its way to Vienna, where it was exhibited 
to the emperor, who bursting into tears at the sight, exclaimed, 
" Gladly would I have allowed the unhappy man a longer life, 
and a joyful return to his country, if his death had not been 
necessary to the repose of Germany." Thus fell, in the thirty- 
eighth year of his age, Gustavus Adolphus, the great protector 
of Protestantism in Germany. Pappenheim died of his wounds 
at Leipzic the day after the battle. He had first distinguished 
himself at Prague, where, although severely wounded, and sup- 
ported only by a few soldiers, he had put to flight a whole regi- 
ment of the enemy. As a second in command, he was excel- 
lent ; but his wild chivalrous courage rendered him unfit for the 
chief direction of an army. .Tilly always maintained that the 
battle of Leipzic was lost through his rashness. Like that fe- 
rocious leader, he had dyed his hands in blood at Magdeburg ; 
but the habits of his early life were studious and refined, and 
foreign travel had improved his natural capacity. Unfortu- 
nately, however, the fierceness of his temper broke through all 
restraints on the day of battle. . Superstition maintained that 
31 V 



242 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



tliis warlike character was stamped by nature on his brow ; and 
it is certain that whenever violent passion caused the blood to 
rush into his face, two red lines appeared on his forehead, giv- 
ing a strangely savage expression to the whole countenance. A 
messenger was on the way from Madrid to bring him the order 
of the Golden Fleece, when death rendered all worldly dis- 
tinctions valueless. 




DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN. 



243 




DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN. 




HE death of Gustavus Adolplius would 
have been fatal to the 
Protestant cause, had not 
the Swedish Chancellor 
Oxenstierna and duko 
Bernard of Saxe Weimar 
•^ exerted themselves to re- 
pair the loss by assem- 
bling the German princes 
and representatives of cities at Heilbronn, where Oxenstierna 
was named head of the alliance in the room of his deceased 
master. The command of the army was divided between duke 
Bernard and General Horn ; but the Swedes had lost much of 
that discipline which had rendered their character so estimable 
in Germany during the lifetime of Gustavus, and now committed 
acts of plunder and violence with as little scruple as the Impe- 
rialists. Some advantages were obtained by Bernard and his 
colleague ; but the unfortunate city of Leipzic, having surren- 
dered for the third time to the Imperialists, was sacked and 
pillaged by Wallenstein's general, Hoik. The plague, which 
was raging at Leipsic, soon afterwards attacked the conqueror : 
and as he lay on his sick-bed, without hope of recovery, the 
stings of conscience became so insupportable that he oflfered six 



244 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

hundred dollars to any one who would bring him a Lutheran 
minister. But all had either been murdered by his own order, 
or had concealed themselves so closely that the attempts of 
his officers to discover them were utterly fruitless. 

While the Swedes were overrunning Germany, Wallenstein 
remained inactive with his army in Bohemia, until the desertion 
of some mercenary troops suggested to him the expediency of 
ascertaining exactly the temper of his men, by tendering his 
resignation to the emperor. The experiment succeeded. Most 
of the German troops remained faithful to their commander ; 
and the principal officers, being invited to a banquet, signed a 
paper, in which they pledged themselves to support the duke 
of Friedland against any who should seek to disturb him in his 
command. It was afterwards pretended that the signature of 
these officers had been obtained by fraud, inasmuch as a paper 
containing the words "saving our duty to the emperor," which 
lay on the table at the beginning of the banquet, had been with- 
drawn when the guests were too drunk to detect the manoeuvre, 
and another substituted, which pledged them simply and un- 
conditionally to the support of their general. But this story, 
although univerally believed in the days of Schiller, has been 
pronounced by modern historians to be an invention of "Wallen- 
stein's enemies, who hoped in some measure to justify their deed 
of blood, by representing the murdered man as a dishonoured 
traitor. 

These proceedings of the duke of Friedland having been be- 
trayed to the emperor by Ottavio Piccoluomini, an officer who 
had insinuated himself into the general's confidence by false 
professions of friendship, an order for superseding Wallenstein 
in his command was forwarded from the Imperial court to Gen- 
eral Gallas, who took care to communicate it to none but the 
foreign mercenary officers. Wallenstein, aware of this treachery, 
despatched messenger after messenger, with overtures of sub- 
mission ; but the vigilance of his enemies prevented their ever 
reaching Vienna : and the duke at length, hopeless of pardon, 
and abandoned by many of his officers, threw himself into Eger, 
(a strong fortress on the western frontier of Bohemia,) and now 
for the first time entered, it is said, into negotiations with the 
Swedes. But Bernard of Weimar, doubtful of his sincerity, 
received these advances coldly. " One who did not believe in 



DEATH OF WALLENSTEIN. 245 

God," he said, " ought not to he trusted hy men." Perhaps 
Wallenstein might eventually have succeeded in removing this 
unfavourahle impression : but his hours were now numbered. 
On the 25th of February, 1633, Gordon, a Scotch soldier of 
fortune who commanded the garrison, and two mercenary offi- 
cers named Butler and Leslie, the one Irish, the other Scotch, 
met at midnight in the citadel of Eger, and swore on the crosses 
of their swords, that they would put to death the duke of Fried- 
land, Illo, Terzky, Kinski, and an officer of inferior rank named 
Neumann, all of whom were invited to an entertainment at the 
citadel on the following evening. This dark plot was communi- 
cated to three other Irishmen and two Italians ; and an arrange- 
ment made that Geraldino, one of the Italians, and another offi- 
cer named Deveroux, should conceal themselves with thirty men 
in a room adjoining the banqueting hall, whence they were to 
rush out at a given signal, and aid the other conspirators in 
their bloody work. At six o'clock in the evening of the 2Gth, 
all the doomed men, with the exception of Wallenstein, who ex- 
cused himself on the plea of severe indisposition, entered the 
citadel of Eger, where they were received with affected cor- 
diality by Gordon and his fellow conspirators : but no sooner 
had the last of them crossed the moat, than the drawbridge was 
raised, and the keys of the fortress placed in the hands of Leslie. 
Then followed one of those scenes with which the wild mercena- 
ries of that day were but too familiar. Whilst the wine-cup 
passed from hand to hand, and the unsuspecting guests were 
drinking deeply to the health of their treacherous entertainers, 
a side door was suddenly thrown open, and Geraldino, at the 
head of six dragoons, armed with pikes and sabres, rushed 
towards the table, shouting in Italian, "Viva la casa d' Austria !" 
"Long live the house of Austria !" whilst from the opposite side 
a loud cry was heard, "Who is on the emperor's side, who?" 
and Deveroux with four-and-twenty soldiers marched into the 
hall. Gordon and Leslie then extinguished the lights, and the 
assassins falling on Kinski and Illo, despatched them before 
they could snatch their sabres from the wall : but Terzky, who 
had possessed himself of his sword during the first confusion, 
fought so desperately that two of the assailants were stretched 
dead at his feet, and many more wounded, before the assassins 
could effect their purpose. Neumann had rushed out at the 



246 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

first appearance of danger, but being unacquainted with the con- 
spirators' pass-word, was soon detected and put to death by the 
soldiers. The conspirators then proceeded to Wallenstein's 
quarters at the burgomaster's house, where they were admitted 
by the guard, in the belief that they were the bearers of some 
important communication to their general. As they ascended 
the staircase, one of the servants implored them not to disturb 
his lord, who, worn out by long watching and the pain of an 
imperfectly healed wound, had just fallen into an uneasy slum- 
ber. " This is the time for disturbance," shouted Deveroux in a 
voice of thunder ; and striking the servant down, he passed on 
to the chamber of Wallenstein, and bursting open the door found 
himself in presence of his victim, who had risen from bed at the 
first alarm, and advanced to meet the intruders. " Art thou 
not," exclaimed the assassin, "the villain who would carry over 
our army to the Swedes, and pluck the crown from our emperor's 
head?" Wallenstein stretched out his arms without uttering a 
word, and Deverous plunged a halberd into his breast. The 
body of the murdered man was then wrapped in a piece of 
tapestry, and conveyed to the citadel, whence it was afterwards 
removed to the duke's burial-place at Gitschin. Bernard of 
Weimar arrived soon afterwards and found Eger in possession of 
the Imperialists. The assassins Butler and Leslie were raised 
by the emperor to the rank of count, as having done good service 
to his cause. The landed possessions of Wallenstein were di- 
vided among his murderers ; and what little remained of his per- 
sonal property (for his false friend Piccoluomini had appropriated 
the greater part to himself immediately after the duke's death) 
was distributed among the soldiers. As soon as the emperor 
received intelligence that his powerful general had ceased to 
live, he drew up and published a proclamation, in which an 
attempt was made to justify the murder. The character of 
Wallenstein was painted in the blackest colours : and acts which 
were afterwards proved by authentic documents to have been 
done with the consent and even at the suggestion of the empe- 
ror himself, were brought forward as proofs of his guilt. The 
whole of Wallenstein's army, with the exception of a few regi- 
ments, which went over to the Swedes or Saxons, remained 
faithful to the emperor, whose eldest son Ferdinand was ap- 
pointed general-in-chief, and Gallas second in command. 



END OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 



247 




BEBNAKD OF SAXK WBIKAB. 



DEATH OF FERDINAND 11. AND BERNARD 
OF SAXE WEIMAR— END OF THE THIRTY 
YEARS' WAR. 



FAD Bernard of Saxe Weimar been able to 
avail himself of the i5rst moments of con- 
fusion consequent on the death of Wallen- 
stein, he might have found means to dis- 
perse the Imperial troops, which were in 
disorder for want of a leader. But the 
Swedes, jealous of the confidence reposed by Bernard in his 
German soldiers, refused to co-operate with him until it was too 
late. The consequence of this indecision was the loss of Ratis- 
bon, which fell into the hands of the Imperialists before it could 
be relieved. This calamity was soon followed by a bloody do- 




248 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

feat at Nordlingen, where the Protestants lost 16,000 men. In 
Swabia, the citizens of Augsburg, after subsisting for some time 
on the dead bodies of men and all sorts of garbage, were com- 
pelled to purchase their lives at the expense of all their pro- 
perty and to embrace the Romish religion. These disasters 
had the effect which might have been anticipated on the Avaver- 
ing counsels of the elector of Saxony, who, in the expectation 
that the emperor's cause would soon be triumphant, hastened to 
conclude a peace on the best terras that he could obtain. The 
electors of Brandenburg and Liineburg followed his example ; 
and a convention was signed at Prague, in which these princes 
pledged themselves, as the price of their restoration to the em- 
peror's favour, to surrender to his tender mercies all their Pro- 
testant brethren in western and southern Germany. Mean- 
while the emperor was not idle. Preparations were made on a 
large scale for continuing the war ; and the dukedom of Fran- 
conia promised to Bernard of Saxe Weimar, on condition of his 
joining the Imperialists. Bernard saw that utter ruin to the 
Protestant cause would be the certain consequence of his aban- 
doning it ; but, on the other hand, the introduction of the 
French into Germany, which seemed the only resource left to 
the allies, was a measure full of danger to the liberties of his 
country. After a severe struggle, religious zeal prevailed over 
patriotism, and he refused the emperor's offer. In the year 
1636, Bernard visited Paris, where he was honourably received 
by Louis XIIL, and promises made to him in abundance, which 
were never fulfilled ; for the French, notwithstanding the inte- 
rest which they affected to take in the affairs of the German 
Protestants, were in reality only desirous that the two parties 
should wear each other out in a long struggle, when it would 
be easy for a French army to enter Germany and satisfy their 
ambitious cravings. Bernard returned to his camp, and soon 
afterwards, during the bombardment of Zabern, narrowly 
escaped death from a ball, which shattered his bed to atoms. 
A remarkable change had taken place in his character. For- 
merly he had allowed his soldiers the most unlimited license ; 
but, during his residence at Paris, the queen, Anne of Austria, 
having implored him for her sake to have mercy on the weaker 
sex, Bernard promised faithfully to obey her commands, and so 
Btrictly kept his word, that the nuns of Remberville, surprised 



END OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 249 

and delighted at a forbearance so uncommon in those days, 
overwhelmed him with expressions of gratitude, and presented 
him with a sword-belt of exquisite workmanship. While the 
war was proceeding thus languidly, an episode was enacted 
worthy the brightest days of chivalry. The Infant of Spain 
and Piccoluomini having invaded France, Richelieu had sent a 
force to repulse them. While the two enemies lay in their 
encampments at Liege, General von Werth determined on his 
own responsibility to lead the cavalry of Piccoluomini to the 
very gates of Paris. Desperate as the attempt seemed, it was 
fully successful. The French troops fled before him, cities 
opened their gates, and the magistrates on bended knees pre- 
sented their keys to the invader. Paris was panic-struck ; and 
Werth might easily have made himself master of the place had 
not his troopers wasted time in plundering the surrounding 
country. This delay enabled Cardinal Richelieu to arm and 
send against the enemy all the disposable troops ; but it was 
not until the autumnal rains brought sickness into his camp that 
the chivalrous invader abandoned his design, and rejoined the 
Imperial army. In the year 1637, the aged emperor died. 
Almost the last act of a life which had been one long display 
of ferocious cruelty, was to order the drowning of some insur- 
gents in Carinthia, and the infliction of horrible tortures on 
the peasants of Upper Austria. Few sovereigns have left be- 
hind them a more odious name. Under the cloak of religious 
zeal, he sent fire and sword through his native land ; and that 
not so much from an honest conviction that the tenets of the 
Romish faith were true, as from an anxious desire to establish, 
at whatever cost of human sufiering, the detestable principle 
" cujus regie, ejus religio," which both Romanist and Protestant 
sovereigns had been too ready to assert from time to time since 
the days of Luther. Heretics were therefore to be extermi- 
nated, not because their doctrines were damnable, but because 
those who presumed to differ from their sovereign were in his 
eyes guilty of rebellion. More than ten millions of human be- 
ings were sacrificed to this unjust and cruel policy. The Jesuits 
had impressed upon him the devilish maxim, that a land had 
better lie waste than harbour heretics and rebels ; and on this 
principle he had acted through life, and reduced the fair plains 
and fields of Germany to the condition of a howling wilderness, 
82 



250 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

through which dissolute soldiers and half-starved miserable pea- 
sants, in whose breasts famine and suffering had extinguished 
the feelings of humanity, wandered like fiends, ready to devour 
alike friends and foes. The year in which the emperor died a 
frightful famine was added to the other horrors of war. So 
ghastly was this visitation, that men, to save their lives, disin- 
terred and devoured the bodies of their fellow-creatures, and 
even hunted down human beings that they might feed on their 
flesh. The effect of this unnatural and loathsome diet was a 
pestilence, which swept away the soldiery as well as the people 
by thousands. In Pomerania, hundreds destroyed themselves, 
as unable to endure the pangs of hunger. On the island of 
Riigen many poor creatures were found dead with their mouths 
full of grass, and in some districts attempts were made to knead 
earth into bread. Throughout Germany, the license of war and 
the misery consequent on famine and pestilence had so utterly 
destroyed the morality which was once the pride and boast of 
this land, that the people, a few years before the most simple 
and kind-hearted in Europe, now vied with the foreign merce- 
naries who infested their country in setting at naught the laws 
of God as well as of man. « Germany," says Betkius, in his 
" Excidium Germaniae," "lieth in the dust. Shame is her 
portion, and poverty and sickness of heart. The curse of God 
is on her, because of her cruelties, and blasphemies, and blood- 
shed. Ten thousand times ten thousand souls, the spirits of 
innocent children butchered in this unholy war, cry day and 
night unto God for vengeance, and cease not : while those who 
have caused all these miseries live in peace and freedom ; and 
the shouts of revelry and the voice of music are heard in their 
dwellings." Ferdinand was succeeded on the imperial throne 
by his son Ferdinand III. Towards the end of this year, 
(1637,) Bernard of Saxe Weimar a second time visited Paris, 
and, being supported by the confidential agent of Oxenstierna, 
(the renowned Hugo Grotius, then an exile from Holland,) 
succeeded in obtaining from the French government a sum of 
money sufficient to pacify his starving soldiery, who were com- 
mitting horrible ravages in Champagne. In the following 
year, the Protestants made themselves masters of the strong 
fortress of Breisach, during the siege of which Bernard, al- 
though lying sick of a fever, sprang from his bed, and, mount- 



END OF THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. 251 

ing Ms charger, put to flight a body of the enemy who werQ 
coming to the relief of the place. Bernard's last hour was 
now approaching ; and he seems to have had a melancholy fore- 
boding of his death. "I am weary of my life," said he, after 
his soldiers, contrary to his express commands, had plundered 
a town which had fallen into his hands, " for I can no longer 
continue with a safe conscience amidst such lawless proceedings." 
And, when the people thronged to pay homage to him on the 
road, he exclaimed, " I fear it will be with me as it was with 
the king of Sweden — as soon as the people honoured him more 
than God, he died." A few days later he was seized with an 
incurable illness, which he himself believed to be the effect of 
poison. They brought him by easy stages to Neuburg, where 
he died on the 8th July, 1639. " Germany," writes Grotius, 
" lost in him her ornament and her last hope ; in a word, al- 
most the only man who was worthy the name of a German 
prince." Rumour almost universally attributed his death to 
the French ; although there were not wanting some who accused 
the emperor of having poisoned him, and a few who believed 
that he died of fever. Thus was the Protestant cause a second 
time deprived of its head. Like his great master Gustavus 
Adolphus, Bernard died in the flower of his age, and was fol- 
lowed like him to the grave by the lamentations of those whom 
he had so often led to victory. In person, he was well formed, 
with long hair flowing over his shoulders in a manner which 
would have given him an appearance of effeminacy, but for the 
expression of his marked and sun-burnt features. Religion and 
war were the occupations of his life. Every day he devoted 
several hours to the study of the Bible, which he knew almost 
by heart. Only two regiments of his army wore uniforms ; the 
rest were dressed in such clothes as they could obtain, and pre- 
sented a wild and motley appearance. On their standard they 
bore the inscription "Perque enses perque ignes," (through 
sword and fire ;) or, " Fortiter agere et pati Bernardinum est," 
(to do and to suffer bravely is the part of Bernard's followers.) 
They carried their swords always naked, having no sheath for 
them, as we are told, but the bodies of their enemies. After 
Bernard's death, the war was carried on for nine years longer, 
during which Generals Banner, Torstenson, and Wrangel suc- 
ceeded one another in command of the Protestant ai my ; and the 



252 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Imperial general Gallas was replaced by a renegade Calvlniet 
named Melander von Holzapfel. The last event of this long 
and disastrous war was the taking of Prague by the Swedish 
general Konigsmark. On the 24th of October, 1648, articles 
of peace were signed at MUnster and Osnabriick in Westphalia. 
The emperor agreed to pay the Swedes five millions of dollars 
as an indemnification for the expenses of the war, and to deliver 
up to them the bishoprics of Bremen and Verden, the island 
of Rugen, and the greater part of Pomerania. The French 
were to continue in possession of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and the 
whole of Alsace, except Strasburg, instead of which they were to 
occupy Breisach, and the fortress of Philipsburg, the keys of Up- 
per Germany. Peace was at the same time concluded between 
Spain and Holland, and the independence of the United Provinces 
fully recognised. Romanists and Protestants were now placed 
in all respects on an equal footing. All ecclesiastical property 
which had been appropriated by Protestants was to remain in 
their hands. The emperor conceded this point, partly because 
it would have been hopeless to oppose it, and partly because he 
began himself to be aware of the advantages to be gained by 
robbing the church of her possessions. The Lutherans and 
Calvinists had now the good sense to lay aside their disputes, 
and to obtain the abrogation of that foolish and wicked law 
which would compel every subject to follow the religion of his 
sovereign. Thus terminated the Thirty Years' War, during 
which the best and bravest of the land had fallen victims to the 
ambition of their own princes, or died in fighting against the 
oppressors of their country. Like one who has been snatched 
from the deadly fangs of a serpent, Germany lay rescued in- 
deed, but torn and exhausted ; while the blood which should 
have circulated cheerily through her veins, communicating nou- 
rishment and health, had either been drained in the conflict, or 
crept through her system, mingled with a poison which was 
corrupting her juices, and threatening eventually to deprive 
her of existence. 



ACCESSION OF LOUIS XIII. OF FRANCE. 



253 




L0UI8 XIIL 



ACCESSION OF LOUIS XIIL OF FRANCE. 




HE young king of France, Louis 
XIIL, son of Henry IV., who 
succeeded to the throne on the 
horrid event of his father's assas- 
sination, was not yet nine years 
old. The parliament, as we have 
already said, immediately con- 
ferred the regency on his mother, 
Mary of Medicis, a woman not 
less bigoted in her devotion to 
Rome than the former queen-mother of that family. The cha- 
racter of Mary, however, is wholly unstained with the imputa- 
tion of any such bloody crimes as those for which Catherine is 
universally execrated. She was entirely under the inj&uence 
of two Florentine adventurers, a man of the name of Concini, 
whom she made Mar^chal d'Ancre, and his wife Leonora de 
Galigai. The rapid and extraordinary elevation of these fa- 
vourites excited almost universal discontent. It is said of Con- 
cini, that to repress the murmurs of the people, by showing 

W 



254 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

them what fate they might expect if they dared to censaro 
him, he had several gibhets erected in diiferent parts of Paris. 
Such means as this of stifling the expression of public feeling 
are seldom for the safety of those who adopt them. 

On the 3d of October, 1611, died the due de Mayenne. Hia 
death at this time was accounted a great loss to France. He 
was a man of integrity, and from the time of his reconciliation 
to Henry IV. had never embarked in any intrigues of state ; 
and it has been thought, that, if he had lived, he might have 
been able to check the civil dissensions which ensued. These 
dissensions were greatly owing to the ambitious desire of some 
of the princes of the blood, and others of the great nobility, 
to take advantage of the distractions of a new reign, and of a, 
feeble minority, to establish their own power and independence. 
The due de Mayenne, on his death-bed, charged his son to re- 
main firm in his principles of religion and loyalty, and only on 
that condition gave him his blessing. 

One of the first objects of Mary of Medicis, and her favour- 
ites, was to unite themselves as closely as possible with the 
court of Spain. In the year 1612 were announced two intended 
marriages, the one between the young king Louis XIII. and 
the infanta, Anne of Austria, daughter of the king of Spain ; 
and the other, between the princess Elizabeth, the king's sister, 
and the prince of Spain, afterwards Philip IV. These mar- 
riages took place by proxy, the one at Burgos in Spain, and 
the other at Bordeaux, on the same day, Oct. 18, 1615, and 
the two princesses were exchanged in the isle of Pheasants, in 
the river Bidassoa, in the November following. The infanta 
was then conducted to Bordeaux, and the king meeting her on 
the way, they made together a solemn entry into that city. 

In the mean time, the prince of Cond^ (Henry II.) and 
other princes and nobles joined with the Protestants in oppo- 
sition to the queen. A war broke out, and the Swiss Protes- 
tants in the king's pay quitted the service, and returned home, 
because they would not act against their brethren of the same 
religion. These troubles were for a time composed in 1617, by 
the entire downfall of the queen and her party. A courtier 
of the name of De Luynes excited in the mind of the king, who 
was now about sixteen years of age, a jealousy of his mother 
and of her favourites, and proposed to him, that Vitry, a cap- 




ASSASSINATION OF HABSCBAL D'ANCBI. 



ACCESSION OF LOUIS XIII. OF FRANCE. 257 

tain of the guards, should have the royal authority to arrest 
Mar^chal d'Ancre. The king agreed, and Vitry, at the head 
of a body of ruffians, who, it may be suspected, were marked 
out for this employment, because something more than a mere 
arrest was intended, took an opportunity of arresting his vic- 
tim on the bridge of the Louvre, and, on the mar^chal's putting 
his hand to his sword, had him instantly killed by his followers. 
The king, on being informed of this transaction by Vitry him- 
self, exclaimed, " Grand merci a vous ! a cette heure je suis 
roi ;" and made him immediately mar^chal of France. The 
body of Concini, which had been carried off, and buried imme- 
diately after his death, was that very evening taken out of its 
grave by a mob of footmen and "pages." It was then dragged 
through the streets, and afterAvards cut in pieces, some of 
which were hung on the gibbets which he had himself erected 
in order to frighten his enemies. His wife Leonora was be- 
headed by order of the parliament. She was interrogated dur- 
ing her trial, what sorcery she had used to acquire her great 
ascendency over the mind of the queen. "I have used none," 
she answered, " except that ascendency which strong minds 
have over the weak." The queen-mother herself was exiled to 
Blois, from whence she made her escape to Angouleme. Soon 
after she had an interview with Louis at Tours, and came to a 
sort of accommodation with him. The reconciliation, however, 
did not last long, and she was at one time at actual war with 
her son. To conclude at once all we need say of her history, 
we may here add, that she was again reconciled to him ; but 
that a final breach ensued in 1630. She fled to Bruxelles in 
1631, and, after many sufferings from neglect and vexation, 
died at Cologne, July 3, 1642. 



w2 



258 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




BICEELI£U. 



EISE OF CAKDINAL RICHELIEU. 




N the king's approach to maturity, strong 
hopes ■were for a time entertained that he 
"would show some portion of his father's 
energy of character. But though personally 
brave, and, like many weak men, often ready 
to authorize very decisive and violent mea- 
sures, he possessed no power of self-govern- 
ment and control, and was always, through 
his whole life, a mere puppet played on by the hands of others. 
M. de Luynes first assumed over the young monarch the do- 
minion which the Concinis had exercised over the queen. De 
Luynes was a man of a proud and grasping temper, but wholly 
unequal to restrain the ambition of the princes of the blood, 
and other nobles, who indulged themselves with impunity in 
all sorts of disorders, and even sometimes committed hostilities 
against the crown. De Luynes died Dec. 15, 1621. It has 
been observed of the court of France at this period, that not 
any one person of eminence was to be found in it, who could 
properly be entitled a man of honour or worth. Pride and 
baseness, qualities very often united, appeared to be almost the 



RISE OF CARDINAL RICHELIEU. 259 

universal characteristic, and the only ability which was either 
possessed or valued was the ability to corrupt and betray. 

At the death of De Luynes, the celebrated Armand du Plessis 
Richelieu, bishop of Lugon, and soon afterwards created cardi- 
nal, was rising rapidly into distinction. He was a man of great 
abilities, and of consummate intrigue and artifice. He had been 
first brought forward by the unfortunate Concini, and afterwards 
attached himself to the new favourite De Luynes. He was for 
some time about the person of the queen-mother, over whom he 
had great influence. He is said to have perfidiously abandoned 
her interests, as soon as he saw that he could advance his own 
by forsaking her. At all events, he acquired a greater degree 
of power than any minister had before possessed in France, and 
from the date of his admission into the royal council in 1624, 
to his death, is to be accounted the sole efficient ruler of 
France. He reminds us in some respects of Cardinal Wolsey, 
but was incomparably more crafty and artful. He accumulated' 
in his own hands a great number of church benefices, but gave 
his whole attention to afiairs of state. He was fond, to an ex- 
treme, of display and magnificence, and even assumed the dress 
and arms of a soldier, and the personal direction of military 
afi'airs. The cardinal de la Valette, archbishop of Toulouse, 
followed in this respect the example of Richelieu. He com- 
manded some troops in Italy, and died with arms in his hands. 

Cardinal Richelieu is generally spoken of with applause and 
respect by French historians, as having laid the foundations of 
the greatness of the monarchy, and of the glory which it ac- 
quired in the succeeding reign. He finally extinguished the 
excessive power of the aristocracy, who have never since his 
time been able to contend with the crown. He almost wholly 
suppressed also those religious wars by which the kingdom had 
been so long fatally distracted. But this he did by depriving 
the Huguenots of their just rights as subjects, rights which had 
been guarantied to them by the most solemn treaties. He also 
depressed that pre-eminence of the house of Austria, which the 
gallant virtues of Francis I. and Henry IV. had in vain at- 
tempted to overrule. 



260 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



DEATH OF RICHELIEU AND LOUIS XIII., AND 
ACCESSION OF LOUIS XIY. 




N the yeju* 1642, the chief efforts of the 
French in the Spanish War were carried 
into Rousillon, in order to aid a revolt 
which the inhabitants of Catalonia had 
made against Spain. Louis himself con- 
ducted his army into that quarter, and 
undertook the ifeege of Perpignan. . Riche- 
lieu, who was to have accompanied him, jvas compelled by ill- 
ness to stop at Narhonne. Louis returned to Paris, where he 
was again joined by the cardinal, who, after lingering some 
time, died Dec. 4, 1642, leaving many of his vast designs in- 
complete, and a name more brilliant than beloved or honoured. 
Perpignan had in the mean time fallen before the French 
arms, and the war was prosecuted with vigour and success. 
But it was the fate of Louis soon to rejoin his ambitious minis- 
ter in that solitary mansion where neither greatness nor glory, 
unless purchased by truly virtuou-s exertions, is permitted to 
follow the short career of human life, A slow fever hung on 
him, and he felt his strength decay. 

The dauphin was at this time not five years old, and the 
king, in the hope to secure a tranquil minority, endeavoured to 
provide for the distribution of his power in a manner which 
should attain this end eifectually. lie appointed the queen, 
Anne of xYustria, sole regent. The duke of Orleans was de- 
clared head of the council and lieutenant-general throughout 
the kingdom ; and it was also provided that all affairs should 
be decided by a majority of voices in council. Both the queen 
and the duke of Orleans solemnly swore to adhere inviolably 
to this arrangement ; and Louis, to secure still more certainly 
its fulfilment, commanded the deed enacting it to be registered 
in parliament. 




to via X 1 7. 



DEATH OF LOUIS XHI. 263 

This being done, he prepared for death with composure. 
Before he died, he earnestly desired his physician to tell him 
exactly how long he had to live ; and when he was told that he 
could not live more than two or three hours, he testified the 
greatest satisfaction, and added, " Well, my God ! I consent 
with all my heart." He died May 14, 1643, in the forty-second 
year of his age, and on the day on which he completed the 
thirty-third of his reign. 

No sooner was the king dead than his will was openly vio- 
lated. Anne of Austria, having previously gained over to her 
interests the duke of Orleans and the prince of Conde, assem- 
bled the parliament on the 18th of May, and procured a formal 
arret which gave her the choice of the council, and invested 
her with all real authority. She was herself governed in all 
things by Cardinal Mazarin, a native of the little town of Pis- 
cina in the Abruzzo in Italy, whose political address had intro- 
duced him to Richelieu, and who now became the leading minis- 
ter in France. 

The army in Flanders, at the time of the young king's acces- 
sion, was under the command of Louis of Bourbon due d'En- 
ghien, son of the prince of Cond^, and himself afterwards known 
in history by the name of " the great Cond^." On receiving 
the news of the late king's death, this young prince, who was 
only twenty-tfpo years of age, received orders not to risk a bat- 
tle. A battle, however, being necessary for the relief of Ro- 
croi, which the Spaniards were besieging with a larger army 
than his own, he ventured to disobey these orders, and on the 
19th of May fought the battle of Rocroi, in which he gained a 
decisive victory. In this battle he charged with horse the Spa- 
nish infantry, which had been till now deemed invincible, and, 
after charging three times, broke their ranks. The count of 
Fuentes, their commander, perished on the field. After this 
great victory, he besieged and took Thionville, and afterwards 
carried the war into Germany. In August, 1644, he fought 
another battle at Friburg, and took Philipsburg and Mentz, and 
several forts on the Rhine. At the end of the campaign, he 
returned to Paris, leaving the command of his army to Mar^- 
chal Turenne. Turenne was surprised by the enemy and de- 
feated. May, 1645, at Mariendahl. The due d'Enghien in- 
Btantly returned to the army, and gained another great victory 



264 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



on the 3d of August, at Nordlingen. One of the enemy's gene- 
rals, General Merci, was among the slain. His body was in- 
terred near the field of battle ; and on his tomb was engraved 
the short but expressive inscription : " Sta, viator, heroem cal- 
cas." — Stop, traveller, you tread upon a hero. 

Meanwhile, in Flanders, the duke of Orleans reduced Grave- 
lines, Mardyke, and some other towns. On October 10, 1646, 
the due d'Enghien made the conquest of the important fortress 
of Dunkirk, which surrendered to him in sight of the Spanish 
army. The due d'Enghien's father died December 26, and 
from this time we are to call him prince of Cond'd. In 1647, 
Mazarin, envious of his glory, detached him into Catalonia 
with too slender a force to allow of his effecting there any 
thing considerable. But, in the following year, the archduke 
Leopold having entered Flanders, and recovered several of the 
places which had been reduced in the preceding campaigns, it 
was deemed expedient to send Cond^ to oppose him. The 
prince took Ypres, and marched to the relief of Lens, which, 
to his great mortification, surrendered in his sight. This 
mortification, however, was soon effaced in the decisive battle 
of Lens which followed, in which the enemy's forces were to- 
tally destroyed or dispersed. Since the foundation of the mo- 
narchy, the French had never gained so many successive victo- 
ries, nor displayed so much conduct or courage. 




THE WAR OF THE FRONDE. 



265 



THE WAR OF THE FRONDE. 




HE -war with the emperor was 
terminated this year by a peace 
signed at Munster on the 24th 
of October, in which several 
important cessions were made to 
France. Peace was also restored 
between Spain and the Dutch 
provinces, in which the independ- 
ence of these provinces was at last acknowledged, after a con- 
test which had lasted fourscore years. Spain was thus at liberty 
to direct her whole force against France ; and in France itself, 
also, civil dissensions arose, which facilitated the progress of the 
Spanish arms. 

The unpopularity of Mazarin was the chief occasion of these 
dissensions. The distress of the finances, which had been much 
increased by the long war, drove that minister to attempt tc 
procure money by many unjust and impolitic methods. The 
parliament of Paris refused to register the edicts which were 
issued for the purpose of raising supplies. In consequence 
of this refusal, one of its members was arrested. On this the 
populace flew to arms, shut up the shops, and barricaded the 
streets. Several affrays, attended with much bloodshed, took 
place. The chancellor was attacked as he was going to the 
parliament for the purpose of annulling its arrets. He was 
obliged to take flight, and several of his attendants were killed. 
His daughter-in-law, the duchess of Sully, who was in the car- 
nage with him, received a wound in her arm. Sanson, the 
son of the celebrated geographer, who was also in the car- 
riage, was mortally wounded. This was the commencement 
of the disturbances commonly called the Fronde : — from the 
34 X 



266 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

French verb fronder, to censure, or browbeat ; and hence the 
word frondeur, which has often been used to denote a person 
of a party opposed to the government. 

These disturbances were aggravated by the famous Cardinal 
de Retz, a man of very bustling and perturbing abilities, and 
of very profligate morals and politics, who having been, much 
against his will, placed by his family in the church, was now 
coadjuteur to the archbishop of Paris. He appears at first to 
have tried to conciliate the two parties, for the purpose, appa- 
rently, of improving his interest with the court ; but this at- 
tempt failing, he set himself at the head of the Fronde, chiefly, 
it is supposed, through his sheer love of intrigue, and the 
vanity of making himself head of a party, and of exercising 
his skill in artifice and cabal. Nor must we forget to mention 
the duchess de Longueville, a lady of a very masculine spirit, 
who was one of the chief promoters of these dissensions. The 
" day of the barricades" was the 26th August, 1648. On the 
following day the barricades were removed, the shops re-opened, 
and afi'airs to all appearance resumed a peaceable aspect. 

The queen, however, thinking Paris no place of safety, fled 
to St. Germaine en Laye, accompanied by her children, by Car- 
dinal Mazarin, the duke of Orleans, and the prince of Cond^. 
Here she was obliged to pledge the jewels of the crown to ob- 
tain money. The king himself was often in want of necessa- 
ries. Most of the court were obliged to sleep upon straw, and 
the pages of the bed-chamber were dismissed, from absolute 
inability to supply them with food. Henrietta Maria also, the 
king's aunt, daughter of Henry IV. and wife of Charles I. of 
England, who had fled for refuge to her native country, was 
reduced on this occasion to the extremest wretchedness ; and 
her daughter, afterwards duchess of Orleans, is said to have 
been compelled to lie in bed for want of means to procure a fire. 
The court, in conformity with that cheerful or perhaps flippant 
humour which has always enabled the French to turn misfor- 
tune into a subject for pleasantry, consoled itself under these 
vexations by making a jest of the Parisians, whose inexpert- 
ness in the military art furnished a perpetual theme of ridicule. 
Songs and epigrams were for a time a great part of the contest. 
At last the king's army, under the command of the prince of 
Condd, invested Paris, and several conflicts took place. Many 




AKNX or AUSIBIA SHOWINa THE KIVQ TO THE FBONDEDSS. 



THE WAR OF THE FRONDE. 269 

of the great nobles had joined the Fronde and the parliament ; 
but scarcely any one of them appeared to be influenced by any 
better motive than the desire of personal aggrandizement. 
They joined the Fronde that they might be bought over by the 
government, either by money or places, or by the hand of some 
rich heiress ; and when they had got what they wanted, were 
always ready to change again. The great Condd was quite as 
unprincipled as the rest. 

A sort of peace was made in the spring of 1640, and in Au- 
gust the court returned to Paris. The intriguing De Retz for a 
time reconciled himself to the court, that he might so purchase 
his elevation to the rank of cardinal, which was soon afterwards 
conferred on him. The prince of Condd became discontented, 
and incurred the displeasure of Mazarin, and was imprisoned 
first at Vincennes, and afterwards at Havre. In February, 
1051, the prince was released, and Mazarin sent into exile. 
Upon this, a report was raised that the queen was about to 
follow him with her son, and a new outbreak was the conse- 
quence. In order to appease the malcontents, it became neces- 
sary for Anne of Austria to admit some of the citizens into her 
chamber, to satisfy them that the king was still there. Several 
of the populace were accordingly admitted, when, drawing the 
bed-curtains, she proved that the alarm created was unfounded, 
by showing them the young king fast asleep. 

Cond^ returned to Paris ; but in the latter part of the same 
year retired into Guienne, of Avhich province he was governor, 
and there set up the standard of revolt. Mazarin soon after- 
wards returned to court and to power. The court was at this 
time removed to Poitiers, whence it was obliged afterwards to 
retreat before Conde, who had been joined by a great number 
of nobles, and who was reinforced also by a body of troops from 
Spain. 

Mardchal Turenne, who, after having attached himself to the 
Fronde, was now come over to the court party, possessed the 
command of the royal army. Conde, after gaining a victory 
at Blenau, advanced to Paris in the month of April, 1652. 
Turenne pursued him, and a severe action was fought in the 
suburb of St, Antoine, but with little advantage on either side. 
Many tumults and assassinations took place in the city, where 
the great obstacle to the restoration of the royal autho- 



270 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



rity appears to have been the extreme dislike entertained for 
Mazarin. This dislike the king, who had now attained his ma 
jority, found it altogether beyond his power to overrule, and 
this obnoxious minister was again sent into exile on the 12th 
of August, 1652. Immediately after his departure, a deputa- 
tion from the citizens went to the king, and entreated him to 
return to his capital. This accordingly he did, and tranquillity 
was restored. The duke of Orleans, who in this last contest 
had taken part with the prince of Cond^, was banished to Blois, 
where he passed the rest of his life. Cardinal de Retz was 
arrested in the Louvre, and conveyed from prison to prison ; 
while the prince of Cond^ himself, pressed by Turenne, and 
feebly supported by the Spaniards, was reduced to wage on the 
frontiers of Champagne a petty and unsuccessful war. 

Such was the termination of this war of the Fronde. From 
this time Louis exercised an undisputed prerogative. The 
country was no longer distracted by faction. The arrogance 
of the nobles was again reduced within those limits which the 
policy of Richeiieu had dictated. Arts and architecture, and 
all the splendour of this long reign, date their origin from this 
epoch of restored domestic tranquillity. 





CBABIiES L 



ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. OF ENGLAND. 27S 




ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. AND DEATH OF 
THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM. 

HARLES was in the twenty-fifth year of his 
age when he ascended the throne. His fea- 
tures were regular, and he would have been 
handsome, if it had not been for the melan- 
choly cast of his countenance. His deport- 
ment was exceedingly dignified. In the mo- 
rality and regularity of his conduct he set a 
good example to his court and people : he was moderate in all 
his habits and his expenses, humane and gentle in his disposition, 
was a man of kind affections, and a most tender husband and 
father. 

Charles's mind was cultivated, but he seldom acted as wisely as 
he could talk, and was often swayed by the counsels of men of 
far inferior capacity. His temper was somewhat hasty, but he 
was generous and forgiving. With all Charles's good qualities, 
he had unfortunately imbibed some prejudices of education that 
proved fatal to him as a king. He had too high an idea of his 
royal prerogative, and, with every desire to do right, had not 
the smallest notion of the true principles of government or 
policy. 

From the very commencement of the new reign, much popular 
dissatisfaction prevailed, chiefly because the king surrendered 
himself entirely to the control of Buckingham, who, implacable 
in his hatreds, fickle in his friendships, imperious and grasping 
in his desires, was regarded with universal dislike. 

The king's marriage with Henrietta Maria, sister to the king 
of France, was also very displeasing to the people, principally 
because she was a Papist, and their religious feelings were 
shocked at her being allowed to exercise publicly her own form 
of worship. She also ofi"ended the more serious part of the na- 
tion, by the change her elegance and gayety wrought in the 
35 



274 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

manners of the court ; and the Puritans found less to dislike in 
the homelj vulgarity of the late Queen Anne of Denmark than 
in the grace and beauty of Henrietta. 

It was a great error in James, and one into Avhich Charles 
also fell, to be occupied with abstract speculations, that is, with 
thoughts of matters which did not concern his own business and 
duties, and not to see what passed under his eyes. Thus, while 
James was writing books on kingly government, he never per- 
ceived that the House of Commons was no longer that subser- 
vient body it had been in all former reigns, but that it had at 
last found out its own strength, and that, from being the slave of 
kings, it was now able to be their ruler. 

Charles also had been equally blind to this change, and was 
not aware of the difficulties which he was bringing on himself 
by his rash treatment of this great organ of the popular voice. 
The first year of his reign was spent by him in making attempts 
to extend his authority, and by the Commons in trying to curb 
it. Provoked by this opposition, Charles hastily dissolved the 
parliament ; and thus the king and the Commons parted in mu- 
tual disgust and animosity, and, when the new parliament as- 
sembled, they met with feelings of suspicion and dislike. 

Charles, by the persuasion of Buckingham, plunged into a 
war with France, (a. d. 1627,) and sent some troops to the re- 
lief of the French Huguenots at Rochelle. Buckingham had 
the command of this expedition, which was ill-planned and un- 
skilfully executed ; and in an attempt to land on the Isle of 
Rh^, he was repulsed with great loss. Another expedition for 
the relief of Bochelle was fitted out in 1628, and Buckingham 
went to Portsmouth to survey the preparations. 

At the same time with the duke a man by the name of Felton 
arrived at Portsmouth, a Puritan of a melancholy and enthusi- 
astic turn of mind, who, hearing the universal complaints that 
were made against the favourite, persuaded himself that he 
should do his country a service by destroying him. His chief 
motive, however, was probably that of private resentment, at 
having been disappointed in his own hopes of promotion in the 
army. 

Felton for some days followed the duke like his shadow, but 
without having an opportunity to effect his purpose. At last, 
as Buckingham was passing through a door-way, and turning to 



ACCESSION OF CHARLES I. OF ENGLAND. 



275 



speak to Sir Thomas Fryer, who was following him, an arm was 
suddenly stretched over Sir Thomas's shoulder, which struck a 
knife into the duke's breast. All this passed in an instant. No 
one saw the blow, nor the person who gave it; but the by- 
standers heard Buckingham exclaim, "The villain has killed 
me !" and saw him pull the knife from the wound, and fall dead 
at their feet. 

The confusion and alarm at this moment were very great, and 
every one rushed forwards in search of the murderer. He was 
rescued with some difficulty from the violence of the bystanders, 
who would have put him to death with their swords. Felton 
was afterwards tried and executed. 




fOBIUMX or BEION OF OnABLXB L 



276 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




CHARLES'S WAR WITH SCOTLAND— FALL 
OF STRAFFORD. 

FTER the death of Buckingham, Charles placed his 
chief confidence in Sir Thomas Wentworth, after- 
wards Lord Strafford, and in Laud, archbishop of 
Canterbury. The first was a man of great talents 
and of a strong and unbending mind, but, unfortu- 
nately for himself and his master, his political opin- 
ions would have better suited the despotic times of the 
Plantagenets than the reign in which he was placed. 

The supplies which the parliament had granted since Charles's 
accession had been both scanty and grudgingly given ; and the 
late king, by his unthrifty management, had left the treasury 
in such an exhausted state, that his son, though frugal and regu- 
lar, soon found himself greatly embarrassed, and wanted money 
to defray the necessary expenses of the government. 

Charles had been provoked, by the unbending sturdiness of 
the Commons, to dissolve the parliament a second time ; and he 
now declared a determination to govern without one : but he was 
no gainer by this imprudent step, for his necessities soon drove 
him to procure money by many arbitrary and unjustifiable 
means. 

The exactions of the Star Chamber were enforced with great 
severity. A duty called tonnage and poundage, which had been 
heretofore given to the reigning monarch as an especial grant 
from the parliament, Charles took upon himself to levy on his 
own authority. He also imposed a tax called ship-nioney, for 
the express purpose of maintaining the navy. But though the 
money was employed for the purpose for which it was demanded, 
and the navy put into a more serviceable condition than it had 
long been in, still, as it was considered an illegal tax, the people 
were highly irritated at its being levied. 

Things were in this state in England, when Charles, with an 



CHARLES'S WAR WITH SCOTLAND. 277 

indiscreet zeal, tried to introduce episcopacy with the liturgy 
of the church of England into Scotland ; but the Scots, instead 
of submitting to change their own Presbyterian form of worship, 
drew up a protestation, binding themselves to resist all religious 
innovation. This protestation they called the Covenant, and 
every person, from one end of Scotland to the other, was re- 
quired to sign it. 

A number of these covenanters next formed themselves into 
an army, and placed themselves under the command of the earl 
of Argyle, seized on some of the king's castles, and hastily for- 
tified the town of Leith. All ranks were so much inflamed by 
party zeal, that even ladies were seen mixing with the lowest 
rabble, carrying loads upon their shoulders, and assisting to 
complete the fortifications. 

The king, to quell these disturbances, marched an army to 
Berwick, and negotiations were begun between him and the 
covenanters. Charles's visible unwillingness to make his native 
land, to which he was so much attached, a scene of bloodshed, 
only served to encourage the Scots in their unyielding spirit. 
He was soon obliged to disband his troops for want of money 
to continue their pay, and he made many concessions to the 
Scots to induce them to return to their homes in peace. 

This the Scots pretended to do, but they soon after appeared 
again in arms ; and, in 1640, Charles found himself in such a 
distressed condition, that, after an interval of eleven years, he 
once more summoned a parliament, in hopes it would grant him 
some assistance. But, as soon as the Commons met, instead of 
paying any attention to the king's affairs, it immediately en- 
tered on its own grievances. 

This parliament, after it had sat only a few months, the king, 
in a moment of irritation, dissolved. This measure he had af- 
terwards but too much reason to repent. His necessities were 
now so great, that he was obliged to borrow money of his min- 
isters and courtiers. With the greatest difficulty he raised a 
body of troops, which he sent against the Scots, who were ad- 
vanced almost to Newcastle. The two armies met at Newburn, 
and Charles's troops were defeated. He was thus reduced to 
greater difficulties than ever, and, as a desperate resource, once 
more summoned a parliament. 

The late events had not tended to put the Commons in better 

y 



278 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

humour with the king or his ministers ; and their first measure 
was to impeach Strafford, who, having been formerly a Puritan, 
was more particularly obnoxious to that party, one of whom, 
Pym, an active leader in the House, had formerly said to him, 
"You have left us, but we will not leave you while your head is 
on your shoulders." And they so well remembered and kept 
their word, that he was brought to trial and condemned to 
death. 

The king, knowing that Strafford's greatest fault in the eyes 
of the people was his attachment to himself, could not at first 
bring himself to assent to the hill of attainder that was passed 
against him,. although the queen and some of his other advisers 
besought him to make that sacrifice to the public outcry. Juxon, 
bishop of London, alone advised him by no means to assent to 
the bill, if his conscience did not approve of it. 

Strafford himself wrote to the king, entreating him, for the 
sake of public peace, no longer to defer his assent to it, and 
ended his letter thus ; — "My consent will more acquit you to 
God than all the world can do besides. To you I can resign 
the life of this world with all imaginable cheerfulness." 

Strafford perhaps thought that this letter would rather plead 
for his life than against it, and he seemed greatly surprised, and 
for the moment overcome, when he was informed that the king 
had actually consented to his execution. But he might have 
pitied rather than have blamed him, could he have known how 
much present grief and after remorse he endured, from allowing 
his consent to the death of his faithful friend and servant to be 
thus extorted from him. 

Charles, unwilling to give a personal assent to the bill which 
deprived him of his valued servant, sent a letter to the Peers, 
entreating them to confer with the Commons, for a mitigation of 
the sentence, or at least to obtain some delay. But the enemies 
of Strafford were inexorable, and he was executed May 12th, 
1641. 




COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND. 279 




BATTLE OF EDGEHILU 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR IN 
ENGLAND. 

T will be impossible to enter into every particular 
of the unhappy differences between the king and 
the Commons, (a. d. 1642.) Each party be- 
coming more and more incensed, and things 
being likely to proceed to extremities, the king 
withdrew to York, taking with him his two eldest 
sons, Charles and James. 

At York the chief nobility and gentry of the kingdom flocked 
to him, oflfering their services, and expressing their duty and at- 
tachment ; for, now that it was become an open quarrel, many 




2 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

who had shown a disapprobation of his former measures con- 
demned the violence of the parliament, and took part with the 
king. The peers, with the exception of Lord Essex and a few 
others, adhered to the king ; while the Puritans took the side of 
the parliament. 

The royalists, to show their contempt of the opposite party, 
and in ridicule of the formality of the close-cropped hair of the 
Puritans, gave them the name of roundheads ; while they, on 
their side, gave to the royalists the titles of cavaliers and ma- 
lignants. 

It was now apparent that a civil war was inevitable ; but each 
party hung back from commencing hostilities, in the hope that 
the other would incur the blame of being the first to draw the 
sword. At last, the king, having been refused admittance into 
the town of Hull by Sir John Hotham the governor, felt him- 
self driven to the necessity of taking active measures ; and, on 
August 20th, 1642, he erected his royal standard at Not- 
tingham. 

The first battle was fought October 3d, at EdgehiU in War- 
wickshire. At the onset Prince Rupert bore down every ,thing 
before him ; but before the day was ended, his rash imprudence 
lost all that his courage had gained. The two armies, after 
fighting all day, remained under arms during the night ; but the 
next morning, after facing each other again, they retired from 
the field without renewing the fight. The loss on each side was 
equal, and neither gained a victory ; though the parliamentarians 
considered themselves as somewhat entitled to claim it, because 
the king's general, Lord Lindsey, was among the slain. 

The siege of Reading, which was garrisoned for the king, oc- 
cupied both parties for many months, (a. d. 1643.) It was at 
last taken by Essex, in the month of April. During the sum- 
mer the royalists were victorious in a battle at Lansdown, near 
Bath ; and in another fought near Devizes ; and the parliament 
had a great loss in the death of Hampden, who was mortally 
wounded in a skirmish at Chalgrave Field, near Oxford. 

Hampden was a man of such exemplary private character, 
that even his enemies were concerned at his death. The king, 
who had now made Oxford his head-quarters, was desirous, when 
he heard of his being wounded, to send his own surgeon to at- 
f^nd him ; but in the interim Hampden died. 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR IN ENGLAND. 281 

Mr. Hampden was very temperate in diet, and the supreme 
governor over all his passions ; he was of an industry and vigi- 
lance not to be tired out ; of an understanding not to be imposed 
upon ; and of a courage equal to his other qualities. Such was 
Hampden's moral courage that he dared at his own cost to 
question the right of the king to ship-money, and brought the 
question before the courts of law. 

This tax was known to be illegal ; indeed, there was nothing 
which the people of England had for more than four hundred 
years better known, or more strenuously insisted upon than this 
— that the king had no right to lay a tax without the consent of 
parliament. But the judges before whom this violation of the 
laws was carried, to obtain, if possible, a decision that might 
thoroughly expose it to the nation, decided that the king had a 
right by his own royal authority to levy this tax or any other 
that he might think needful. 

From that time, Hampden's resolution to oppose the king and 
all supporters of arbitrary principles and measures became more 
inflexible. In the beginning of the civil war he undertook the 
command of a regiment in the parliamentary army, and per^ 
formed his duty faithfully till he was wounded in the battle of 
Chalgrave Field. He survived three weeks, and then gave up 
a life he had devoted tQ the cause of civil liberty. 




36 



t2 



282 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



CAPTURE OF CHARLES I. 




EVERAL years after the civil war had raged, 
the king's affairs went fast to ruin ; and he lost, 
one after the other, almost all the towns he had 
garrisoned. He himself fled into Wales and 
afterwards to Oxford, where he passed the winter. 
Seeing his condition desperate, and dreading 
above all things to be made prisoner by the now 
triumphant parliament, he formed the unfortunate resolution of 
throwing himself into the hands of the Scots. 

He accordingly set out from Oxford, and arrived on May the 
5th at the Scottish camp before Newark, (a. d. 1646.) The 
Scottish generals were much surprised at the appearance of the 
king ; and though they affected to treat him with respect, they 
put a guard upon him, and made him in reality their prisoner. 
The Scots, having now the king in their hands, required of him 
to send orders to the governors of Newark, Oxford, and all his 
other garrisons, to surrender. This he did, and the soldiers and 
officers all received honourable treatment from Fairfax. 

As soon as the parliament knew that Charles was in the hands 
of the Scots, it began to treat with them for the possession of 
his person. The Scots, after some delays and hesitation, agreed, 
on condition of receiving four hundred thousand pounds, the ar- 
rears of their pay due from the parliament, to give up the king. 
A private letter, communicating the information of this dis- 
graceful bargain, was brought to Charles while he was playing 
at chess ; and his self-command was so great that he continued 
his game, without betraying by his countenance or manner that 
he had received any distressing news. In a few days he was 
given up to the English commissioners, who were sent by the 
parliament to take him into their custody ; and he was conveyed, 
in the month of February, to Holmby, in Northamptonshire, 
one of his own royal residences. 



CAPTURE OF CHARLES I. 



283 



. After the king had been at Holmby some weeks, Cromwell 
formed the design of carrying him thence by force, and sent 
Cornet Joyce, with five hundred men, to seize him. Joyce came 
armed with pistols into the king's presence, and told him he 
must come along with him. 

The king asked Joyce upon what warrant he acted : he answered 
by pointing to his soldiers, who were a fine body of men, drawn 
up in the court-yard. The king said, smiling, « Your warrant is 
indeed written in fair characters and legible ;" and knowing that 
resistance would be in vain, immediately consented to accompany 
him, and was carried to the head-quarters of the army at Triple 
Heath, in Cambridgeshire. 




OOBTUUB OF i. Oi.Ti.I.rEB. 



284 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF CHARLES L 



LL things being now prepared for the fatal catas- 
trophe, the king, on the 6th of January, 1649, was 
impeached of high treason for having presumed 
to appear in arms against the parliament. When 
he was informed that he must prepare for his 
trial, he said little, but was heard uttering to 
himself — " God is everywhere alike in wisdom, 
power, and goodness." He then retired to his apartment, and 
spent some time alone and in prayer. 

On the 18th of January, Charles was removed from Windsor 
to St. James's palace ; and his guards and attendants were or- 
dered to treat him as no longer possessed of royal dignity, and 
to call him merely Charles Stuart. His own attendants were 




TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF CHARLES L 285 

forbidden to wait on him at table, and the common soldiers vrerc 
appointed to bring him his meals. Charles was much shocked 
at this mark of disrespect ; but, soon recovering his composure, 
he merely said, " Nothing is so contemptible as a despised king." 

The preparations for the trial were soon made. Cromwell 
declared in a speech in parliament, that had any man volunta- 
rily proposed to bring the king to punishment, he should have 
regarded that man as the greatest traitor ; but, added he, 
" Providence and necessity hath cast it upon us." 

On the 20th of January, the king's judges, who were the per- 
sons called governors of the kingdom, assembled in Westminster 
Hall. Charles was brought three several days before the court 
which his accusers had created to try him, and each time refused 
to acknowledge its jurisdiction. On the last of these days, 
January 27th, he was pronounced guilty of having appeared 
in arms against the parliament, and was condemned to be be- 
headed on the third day after. 

When he had returned to his apartment at St. James's, he 
retired into his room with Dr. Juxon, and told Mr. Herbert 
to refuse admittance to all persons coming to take leave of him ; 
adding, " My time is short and precious, and I am desirous to 
improve it the best I may in preparation. I hope those who 
love me will not take it ill that they have not access to me. 
The best office they can now do me is to pray for me." 

A scaffold was erected in front of the palace at Whitehall, 
and on January 30 he was brought there, attended by Juxon 
and Herbert ; but the latter was so much overwhelmed with 
grief, that the whole melancholy office of assisting the king in 
his last moments devolved on the aged bishop. 

On the scaffold, the king spoke a few words : he declared him- 
self innocent towards his people, — doubtless he thought himself 
so, — but acknowledged himself guilty in the sight of God ; and 
that the consent which he had once given to the execution of an 
unjust sentence was now deservedly punished by an unjust sen- 
tence inflicted on himself; so heavily did the death of Strafford 
still press upon his heart. 

Juxon then assisted him to unrobe. An executioner, whose 
face was concealed by a mask, then struck off his head, and 
holding it up, said, " This is the head of a traitor !" This 
bloody spectacle seemed to cause a sudden revulsion in the 



2^6 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HTSTORY. 



minds of all the spectators, "who felt as much surprised and 
shocked as if the catastrophe they witnessed had been un- 
expected. 

Charles was in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the 
twenty-fifth of his reign. He married Henrietta Maria, daughter 
of Henry IV., king of France. Their children were three sons 
and three daughters. 




ACCESSION AND GOVERNMENT OF CROMWELL. 



287 




OLITSB OBOMWELI. 



ACCESSION AND GOVERNMENT OP 
CROMWELL. 



HE first act of the parliament was 
to abolish the House of Peers as 
useless and dangerous. A new great 
seal of England was made, the 
legend or inscription round which 
was, " The first year of freedom by 
God's blessing restored 1648." AH 
loyalists were treated with great se- 
verity, and it was made high treason 
to call the prince of Wales by any 
other name than Charles Stuart. 
The forms of all public business were altered, and the new legis- 




288 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

lators gave to their government the name of the commonwealth 
of England. 

Cromwell went as lord lieutenant to Ireland, (a. d. 1649,) 
where he found every thing in a very distracted state ; but in a 
few months he restored order in the island. He then left his 
son-in-law. General Ireton, as his deputy, the affairs of Scotland 
calling for his presence in that country. 

The Scottish Presbyterians had refused to acknowledge the 
English republic ; and, resolving to adhere to the monarchy, 
had proclaimed Prince Charles their king, and sent to invite 
him to come and take possession of the throne ; but on such 
hard conditions that those who were his best friends counselled 
him not to make such sacrifices for the empty title of king. 

Charles, who entertained, probably, the dishonest intention 
of breaking through these conditions whenever he should be able, 
agreed to them and returned with the commissioners. He was 
not suffered to set his foot on Scottish ground till he had signed 
the covenant ; and the moment he was on shore he was beset 
by the Covenanters, who strove to convert him" to their own 
opinions. 

He now found himself in a very comfortless situation. The 
Presbyterians kept the entire administration both of church and 
state in their own hands, and though they allowed him the name 
of king, they did not treat him even with the respect due to a 
superior. They paid so little regard to his feelings, that they 
obliged him to pass under the gates of Aberdeen, over which was 
hung one of the limbs of his faithful friend and servant, the 
marquis of Montrose, who had a little while before been put to 
death for appearing in arms in his cause. 

Under these circumstances, Charles secretly rejoiced on find- 
ing that Cromwell was on his march to Scotland with a power- 
ful army for the purpose of driving him from his uneasy throne. 
The Scottish army, commanded by General Leslie, attacked 
Cromwell near Dunbar, and was completely beaten, with great 
loss ; and Cromwell would soon have been entire master of the 
kingdom, had he not been attacked with a fit of illness, and been 
obliged to return to England. 

Cromwell again entered Scotland, (a. d. 1651,) and marched 
so far into the country as to get behind the army of the Cove- 
nanters. Charles, who was with the army, which consisted of 




37 



ACCESSION AxND GOVERNMENT OP CROMWELL. 



:291 




CHARLES IL IN IHE WOOD OF BOSCOBEL. 



fourteen thousand men, seeing the road to the English border 
thus opened to him, formed the bold resolution of marching 
forwards into England, falsely presuming that all who were dis- 
contented with the commonwealth would flock to his standard. 

Charles marched forwards, in hopes at last to gather strength ; 
but he arrived at Worcester with only his fourteen thousand 
Scots. Here he halted, and had a few days' rest after his long 
and fatiguing march. In the mean time, Cromwell, when he 
found that the king had slipped by him, left the command of 
the Scottish war to General Monk, and followed Charles with 
all possible expedition. 

Cromwell raised the militia of the several counties as he 
passed, so that by the time he reached Worcester he mustered a 
considerable force. The next day, Sept. 4, 1651, he surrounded 
the town with his troops, and, falling on the royal army, soon 
destroyed it, the very streets being filled with dead bodies. 

Charles, after making a desperate resistance, was at last 



292 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

obliged to flee, witli fifty or sixty gentlemen in his company. 
They rode about twenty-six miles -vvithout stopping. It was 
then thought advisable for them to separate. Charles, by tho 
advice of Lord Derby, went to a lone house on the borders of 
Staffordshire, inhabited by a man of the name of Penderell, who 
and his five brothers were wood-cutters in the neighbouring 
wood of Boscobel. 

Charles committed himself to the care of these men, who 
showed themselves worthy of the confidence placed in them ; 
for, though a high reward was offered to any one who would 
deliver up the prince, and it was declared certain death to con- 
ceal him, these honest rustics would not betray him. 

On one occasion, fearing to be discovered by a party of sol- 
diers who were searching the wood, Chai'les hid himself in a 
large oak tree ; from among the branches of which he could 
hear the soldiers say, they wondered where he could be, for 
they were sure he was somewhere in the wood. 

Charles was wandering about not less than six weeks, from the 
time of the battle of Worcester, without being able to get out of 
the country ; and the risks he ran of discovery were very great. 
At last he arrived at a lone house, between Shoreham and 
Brighthelmstone, and found means to cross the water. 

While Charles was thus wandering about, the party in power 
had been going on triumphantly. The victory at Worcester 
they chose to call their "crowning mercy." Monk had been 
successful in Scotland ; Ireton kept every thing quiet in Ireland ; 
and the government, elated by success, soon showed a desire to 
lord it over foreign states ; and, in 1652, declared war against 
the Dutch. 

Holland was at that time regarded as the most considerable 
maritime power in Europe, and was supposed to excel all other 
states in the art of ship-building, and in the skill of her seamen. 
But now the English navy, which the late king had paid great 
attention to, and which was manned by sailors whom the cir- 
cumstances of the time had made bold and hardy, was found a 
match for that of Holland ; and Admiral Blake was several times 
the victor in engagements with the Dutch admirals, Van Tromp, 
De Kuyter, and De Witt. 

In the midst of all this success, an ignominious fall was pre- 
paring for that comparatively inconsiderable band of men who 



ACCESSION AND GOVERNMENT OF CROMWELL. 



29b 




CROMWELL EXPELLING IDE PARLIAMENT. 



Still called themselves a parliament. Cromwell, who now thought 
It time to drive them from the high station which he had suf- 
fered them to occupy, went, on April 20, 1653, to the parliament 
house while the members were assembled, and placing a file of 
soldiers at each door, entered the hall, saying, <<that he was 
come with a purpose of doing what grieved him to the very soul, 
and what he had earnestly besought the Lord not to impose 
upon him ; but that there was a necessity for it." 

He next sat down and heard the debates, and then suddenly 
starting up, he exclaimed: "This is the time, I must do it." 
Turning to the members, he loaded them with every term of re- 
proach, and called them tyrants, oppressors, and public robbers. 

% 2 



294 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

At last he stamped with his foot, on which signal the soldiers 
entering the hall, he ordered them to drive all the members out. 

As the members took their compulsory departure, Cromwell 
said to them, " You are no longer a parliament ; the Lord has 
done with you : he has chosen other instruments for carrying on 
his work." He stayed till the hall was empty; then order- 
ing the doors to be locked, he put the keys into his pocket, and 
returned to the palace at Whitehall, where he and his family had 
taken up their residence. 

Cromwell was now the sole head of the government, and no 
one attempted to dispute his power. To keep up the appearance 
of a commonwealth, he summoned a parliament, who set them- 
selves to work to settle the affairs of the state. They consi- 
dered the clerical office as being altogether a remnant of popery, 
and proposed that there should be no more clergy. The com- 
mon law they deemed a badge of Norman slavery, and were 
desirous to set it aside. They also voted that learning was 
heathenish, and the universities unnecessary. 

This parliament had the name given it of Barebones's parlia- 
ment, from the name of one of its chief orators. At last, the 
measures of the parliament became so utterly absurd that Crom- 
well became ashamed of it, and suffered one only of their many 
proposed changes and regulations to be carried into effect. This 
one was in regard to the marriage ceremony, which was declared 
to be a mere civil contract, and was appointed to be performed 
for the future in private rooms, before a magistrate, instead of 
being solemnized in churches. 

Cromwell had at this time the title of Protector conferred on 
him. The mass of the people were so tired of the tyranny and 
oppression of the parliament, that they were thankful to get rid 
of their many masters, and to enjoy any thing like a settled 
government. And Cromwell, though he trampled on the laws 
of the country, would suffer no other person but himself to do 
so. He enforced justice and civil order, and made his govern- 
ment respected at home and feared abroad. 

Cromwell kept up the power of the navy, and soon obliged 
the Dutch to sue for peace. He attacked the Spaniards because 
they interrupted the English in their traffic with Spanish Ame- 
rica, and took from them the island of Jamaica in the West In- 
dies, which is still retained by the English. The protectorship 



ACCESSION AND GOVERNMENT OF CROMWELL. 295 

was not only confirmed to Cromwell for life, but was also settled 
on whomsoever he should choose to appoint after his death. 

This proceeding alarmed both the republicans and the roy- 
alists, who began to fear that a power so well established would 
become permanent, to the destruction of their different hopes. 
In 1655, a plan was formed for a general rising among the 
royalists. But Cromwell and his secretary, Thurloe, had full 
information of their designs, and before the appointed day of 
insurrection, many of the royalists were taken up ; some were 
punished with death, and several others were sold for slaves and 
sent to Barbadoes. This despotic act struck terror throughout 
the whole nation ; and no other considerable attempt was made 
to overturn the protector's power. 

Cromwell's government of Ireland was equally vigorous. 
Fleetwood, who had married his eldest daughter, (Ireton's 
widow,) was his deputy, and carried many of his arbitrary 
measures into effect. Fleetwood was succeeded by the pro- 
tector's second son, Henry, a young man of great abilities and 
extraordinary goodness, who, pitying the condition of the Irish, 
did all he could to improve it. 

Cromwell, in the latter part of his life, was under a conti- 
nual dread of being secretly murdered. And though he had often 
braved danger in battle with intrepidity, he now betrayed a 
more than common fear of death ; and every moment of his 
life was made miserable by the apprehension of losing it. In 
addition to these terrors, he had many causes of mortification 
in his own family. 

Eichard, Cromwell's eldest son, whom he meant for his suc- 
cessor, was a man of inferior talents and of no ambition. Henry 
Cromwell was a man of abilities, but had too much virtue to be 
willing to follow his father's footsteps. Cromwell's other 
daughters were zealous royalists ; and Mrs. Claypole, the one 
whom he loved best of all his children, represented to him, when 
on her death-bed, and in terms which filled him with grief, her 
disapprobation of the conduct which he had pursued. From that 
time he was never seen to smile. 

Cromwell's exertions and agitations were too great for his 
bodily frame to support. He found the exalted state to which 
he had attained a burden too heavy to be borne ; and died, a 
worn-out old man, on September 3, 1658, in the 59th year 



296 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



-of his age. He was buried with royal pomp in "Westminster 
Abbey. 

Cromwell's character is one of the most extraordinary in 
history. His talents were, in some respects, of the very highest 
order. In others, he was strikingly deficient. His government 
of Ireland ; the manner in which he treated Holland and Spain, 
thus vindicating the independence and naval power of England, 
are undoubted proofs of the energy of his mind and the wisdom 
of his policy. 

Richard Cromwell was proclaimed protector in his father's 
place. But the nation soon found the difference between the 
strong hand of Oliver Cromwell and the feebleness of his son, 
and showed a disposition to cast off his authority. But Richard, 
quietly resigning a dignity which he had neither the power nor 
the inclination to keep, wisely saved himself from being dispos- 
sessed by violence. He held the protectorship only a few months. 

Henry Cromwell also resigned his command in Ireland; 
though his popularity in that country was very great, and he 
might have retained his power there if he had chosen to do so. 




A PCF.ITAN BOLCIEK. 




CHAELE6 II. 



RESTORATION OF CHARLES 11. 



299 



/^ 




EESTORATION OF CHARLES 11. 




HE country was now without any apparent ruler, 
and was split into a variety of factions. The 
republicans hoped to establish their long-desired 
form of popular government, and the royalists in 
their turn were full of expectations and projects. 
Charles, meantime, on hearing of what was 
passing in England, left the Low Countries, where he had for 
some time past taken refuge, and came to Calais, where he stayed, 
awaiting the event. For some time there seemed little chance 
of any turn in his favour ; but, at last, what the efforts of his 
friends could not do, the rivalry of his enemies brought about. 

Lambert and Monk had long hated each other; and Monk, 
partly perhaps to disappoint Lambert, who was secretly ambi- 
tious of the protectorship, formed the design of bringing back 
the king, and entered into a correspondence with him. But he 



300 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

kept his intentions so well concealed that he appeared to be only 
acting for the restoration of the parliament. 

Monk collected several scattered regiments in Scotland, and 
marched directly into England. Lambert set forward to meet 
him, but found himself deserted by his own soldiers ; and the 
parliament, being no longer held in terror by the troops, as- 
sumed once more the reins of government, arrested Lambert, 
and committed him to the Tower. 

Monk and his army soon reached London. He appeared at 
first to acknowledge the authority of the parliament ; but in a 
few days openly avowed his contempt of that obtrusive body of 
men, and declared for a free parliament. He called together 
all the surviving members of the old or Long Parliament, who 
had been expelled by Colonel Pride in 1648. They met on 
February 21, 1G60, and in a few days formally dissolved them- 
selves, and issued writs for a new parliament, which assembled 
April 25. 

On the 1st of May, Monk, having every thing ripe for his 
project, ventured to propose to parliament the restoration of the 
king. It is impossible to describe the joy with which this pro- 
posal was heard — a joy which soon spread from the house to 
the city, and from thence through the whole country. The 
peers from all parts of the kingdom hastened to reinstate 
themselves in their parliamentary rights ; and on the 8th of 
May, Charles 11. was proclaimed king, and a committee of gen- 
tlemen was sent to invite him to return and take possession of 
his dominions. 

The king sailed from Scheveling, a small village on the coast 
of Holland, and was met at Dover by General Monk, who con- 
ducted him to London, which he entered amidst the joyful ac- 
clamations of the people. May 29, 1660. 

Charles was thirty years old when, after sixteen years, he was 
so unexpectedly placed on the throne of his ancestors. He had a 
good figure, and though his features were harsh, there was some- 
thing agreeable in his countenance ; and his cheerful, easy, and 
graceful deportment made him altogether a very engaging per- 
son. He had a great deal of shrewdness and wit ; and with com- 
mon application might h*.ve been any thing he pleased. But he 
loved amusement, and hated business, and to live idly and merrily 
was all he cared for. 



RESTORATION OP CHARLES II. 



301 




EZECUTION OF SIR HENRT TANE. 



The king began his reign by forming a ministry from among 
the best and wisest men of all parties, and he gave general 
satisfaction by the choice he made. An act of indemnity, or of 
general pardon, was then passed towards all those who had taken 
part against the crown, excepting only the judges who had sat 
on the late king's trial, and all those who had in any other way 
been immediately accessory to his death. About sixty persons 
had been concerned in that act. Of these many were dead, 
and others had left the kingdom. 

Of those who could be brought to trial, ten only were exe- 
cuted : the rest were reprieved and placed in different prisons. 
Harrison, who had conducted Charles I. from Hurst Castle, 
was among those who suffered. He died justifying his conduct 
to the last. Hugh Peters also was executed. He had been 
one of Cromwell's fanatical preachers, and had not only been 
very active in stirring up the minds of the people against the 
king ; but also, it was supposed, was one of the masked exe- 
cutioners who beheaded him. 

General Lambert and Sir Henry A^'ane, though they were 
not absolutely regicides, were yet thought too guilty to be in- 
cluded in the act of indemnity. Yane was executed : Lambert 
was reprieved and exiled to the island of Guernsey, where he 

2A 



302 INCIDENTS OP MODERN HISTORY. 

lived thirty years, and from being a rigid Puritan became a Ro- 
man Catholic. * 

This act of retribution being performed, the ministry applied 
themselves to the business of the state. The chancellor, Lord 
Clarendon, who had attended the king during his exile, had the 
chief weight in the council, and by his integrity and wisdom the 
government was carried on for a time with justice and modera- 
tion. The old standing army of the republicans was disbanded : 
the king retained only a few guards and garrisons ; and most 
of the fortified places that had not been destroyed in the civil 
wars were dismantled. 

Charles married Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the king 
of Portugal, (a. D. 1662.) The new queen had been educated 
in a convent, and was very formal and grave : she rejected the 
company of the English ladies, and would only have about her 
a set of old solemn Spanish duennas. The king found her and 
her court so dull that he neglected her society, and spent most 
of his time with idle and dissolute companions and unprincipled 
women. 

Charles entered into a war with Holland, which afterwards 
led to a rupture with France and. Denmark, (a. d. 1664.) 
This war was carried on wholly by sea ; and the king's brother, 
James, duke of York, an active enterprising man, commanded 
the fleet. Many well-contested actions were fought, and many 
fruitless victories gained. One of these engagements lasted four 
days, and is among the most memorable recorded in history. 

The Dutch fleet consisted of seventy-six ships, and was com- 
manded by the famous De Ruyter, and by Van Tromp, son of 
the great Van Tromp. The English fleet was commanded by 
Prince Rupert, and by Monk, then duke of Albemarle, and 
altogether was nearly equal to the Dutch. The detail of the 
different engagements of the four days would be little instructive. 
On the last day neither party had gained the victory. 

The two fleets then retired to their harbours, but met again, 
June 25th, at the mouth of the Thames, when the English ob- 
tained a decisive victory. De Ruyter, indignant at being obliged 
to fly, frequently exclaimed, " God, among so many thou- 
sand bullets, is there not one to put an end to my miserable 
life !" The English were now incontestably masters of the sea ; 
but they had been visited at home during this year by so many 



RESTORATION OF CHARLES II. 



303 



w 



M 



})i< 



rA 



V^; 



5:c 







i 



>x< 



>x< 



GREAI FIBE OF LONDON. 



calamities that they had no spirit to rejoice in any triumphs 
over a foreign foe. 

In the preceding autumn, a most violent plague had broken 
out, particularly in London. There, in a short time, ninety 
thousand persons are said to have died of that malady. While 
London was still suffering under this calamity, it was assailed 
also by another. On the 3d of September, 1666, a fire broke 
out near London Bridge, ■which spread with such rapidity that 
thirteen thousand houses were burnt down. 

These dreadful scenes were not without some good effect on 
the king's disposition, and detached him for a while from the 
idle and dissolute habits he had sunk into ; but his vicious com- 
panions soon got about him, and rallied him out of all his good 
resolutions ; and he relapsed into his former way of life. 

These vicious companions, the chief of whom was the duke of 
Buckingham, had long meditated the overthrow of Lord Cla- 



304 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




LOED CLARENDON. 



rendon, whose integrity made him the particular object of their 
dislike. It happened that the Dutch fleet sailed up the Medwaj, 
and destroyed some ships in the harbour at Chatham. A peace 
was made with Holland soon afterwards. Buckingham and his 
party found means of turning both this peace itself, and also the 
disgrace at Chatham, to the particular discredit of Clarendon, 
insinuating that the latter could not have taken place, unless he 
had been negligent of the public security. 

Charles, who had little gratitude in his nature, forgetting 
how faithfully this great statesman had served him in all his 
wanderings and necessities, and how much his wisdom had con- 
tributed to strengthen him on the throne, was not sorry to have 
a pretext for removing a man who was some check upon his 
vices. Clarendon was, therefore, impeached on various frivo- 
lous pretences, and was sentenced to banishment. 

Clarendon retired into France, and employed the remainder of 
his life chiefly in composing his History of the Rebellion, and 
also in writing an account of his own life. His youngest 
daughter, Anne Hyde, married the duke of York soon after the 
restoration. She died young, leaving two children, the princesses 
Mary and Anne. 



RESTORATION OF CHARLES H. 305 

After Clarendon's disgrace, Prince Rupert, the duke of Or- 
mond, Sir Orlando Bridgman, and other men of experience and 
high character, had for a time the chief weight in the council. 
But in 1670 their influence declined, and the king, whose care- 
lessness about public affairs daily increased, committed the entire 
management of the state to five of the most unprincipled men in 
the kingdom, Clifford, Ashley, Buckingham, Arlington, and 
Lauderdale, who were called the Cabal, from the first letters of 
their names. 

One of the nefarious measures of this administration was to 
shut up the exchequer, and to take possession of the money 
which private individuals had placed in it. Another, and a still 
more generally unpopular measure, was that of entering into a 
new war with the Dutch, in order to gratify Louis XIV., one of 
the most ambitious, vain-glorious, and unprincipled kings that 
ever reigned. 

Charles at first hesitated to take such an unpopular step ; but 
he was at length persuaded into it by his sister Henrietta, 
duchess of Orleans, who was sent on a visit to him by the French 
king. It is even said that the restoration of popery in England 
was made an article of a secret treaty between the two kings. 
Charles, if he had any religion at all, was in his heart a Papist ; 
and the duke of York was a professed one. 

The French and English fleets now joined each other. As they 
were at anchor in Solebay, De Ruyter came unexpectedly upon 
them. The duke of York commanded in chief, in the action 
between the Dutch and the combined fleets, and had his ship so 
shattered that he was obliged to remove his flag on board another. 
The battle lasted the whole day, and De Ruyter declared that, 
of the thirty-two actions he had been in, this was the hardest 
fought. The English and Dutch lost many ships, and neither 
party gained any thing. The French took care to keep aloof 
during the engagement. 

Another memorable naval action was fought on August 11, 
1673. The English fleet was commanded by Prince Rupert, the 
Dutch by De Ruyter. In this battle too, as in many of the 
former, nothing was gained by either party. 

By the death of Clifford, and the disgrace of Ashley, who 
had been created Lord Shaftesbury, the cabal was broken up. 
(a. d. 1674.) More honest ministers came into place, and wiser 
39 2 A 2 



306 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



measures were pursued. One of these measures was to make 
peace with Holland ; but Charles still kept up with France a 
secret alliance on the most dishonourable terms. He received 
privately from Louis XIV. an annual pension of two millions of 
livres, as the price of his supporting the French interest in his 
own court. 

In the midst of a life of vicious indulgence, Charles was at- 
tacked by an apoplexy, and died, after a few days' illness, Feb- 
ruary 6th, 1685, in the fifty-fifth year of his age, and the 
twenty-fifth of his reign. Charles II. married Catherine of 
Braganza, daughter of the king of Portugal. They had no 
children. 





JAUES IL 



ATTEMPT TO RE-ESTABLISH THE CATHOLIC RELIGION. SO' 




Li:^ 



THE BISHOPS LEAVING THE TOWER. 



ATTEMPT OF JAMES II. TO RE-ESTABLISH 
THE CATHOLIC RELIGION IN ENGLAND. 

f "'^'*f HE duke of York, who succeeded his 
brother by the title of king James 
II. (a. d. 1685,) had been bred a 
Papist by his mother, and was 
strongly bigoted to his principles. 
He went openly to mass with all 
the ensigns of his dignity, and 
even sent one Caryl as his agent to 
Rome, to make submission to the pope, and to pave the way for 
the readmission of England into the bosom of the Catholic 
church. 

Among those who distinguished themselves against Popery 
was one Dr. Sharpe, (a. d. 1686,) a clergyman of London, who 
declaimed with just severity against those who changed their 




310 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

religion by such arguments as the popish missionaries were able 
to produce. This, being supposed to reflect upon the king, gave 
great offence at court, and positive orders were given to the 
bishop of London to suspend Sharpe, till his majesty's pleasure 
should be further known. The bishop refused to comply, and 
the king resolved to punish the bishop himself for disobedience. 

To effect his design, an ecclesiastical commission was issued 
out, by which seven commissioners were invested with a full and 
unlimited authority over the whole church of England. Before 
this tribunal the bishop was summoned, and not only he, but 
Sharpe, the preacher, suspended. 

The next step was to allow the liberty of conscience to all 
sectaries ; and he was taught to believe, that the truth of the 
Catholic religion would then, upon a fair trial, gain the victory. 
He, therefore, issued a declaration of general indulgence, and 
asserted that non-conformity to the established religion was no 
longer penal. 

To complete his work, he publicly sent the earl of Castlemain 
ambassador extraordinary to Rome, in order to express his 
obedience to the pope, and to reconcile his kingdom to the 
Catholic communion. Never was there so much contempt 
thrown upon an embassy that was so boldly undertaken. The 
coui't of Rome expected but little success from measures so 
blindly conducted. They were sensible that the king was 
openly striking at those laws and opinions which it was his 
business to undermine in silence and security. 

The Jesuits soon after were permitted to erect colleges in 
different parts of the kingdom ; they exercised the Catholic 
worship in the most public manner ; and four Catholic bishops, 
consecrated in the king's chapel, were sent through the kingdom 
to exercise their episcopal functions, under the title of apostolic 
vicars. 

Father Francis, a Benedictine monk, was recommended by the 
king to the university of Cambridge, for a degree of master of 
arts. But his religion was a stumbling-block which the univer- 
sity could not get over ; and they presented a petition, beseech- 
ing the king to recall his mandate. Their petition was disre- 
garded, and their deputies denied a hearing ; the vice-chancellor 
liimself was summoned to appear before the high commission 



ATTEMPT TO RE-ESTABLISH THE CATHOLIC RELIGION. 311 

court, and deprived of his office ; yet the university persisted, 
and father Francis was refused. 

The place of president of Magdalen college, one of the richest 
foundations in Europe, being vacant, the king sent a mandate in 
favour of one Farmer, a new convert to popery, and a man of 
bad character in other respects. The fellows of the college 
made very submissive applications to the king for recalling his 
mandate ; they refused admitting the candidate, and James, 
finding them resolute in the defence of their privileges, ejected 
them all except two. 

A second declaration for liberty of conscience was published 
about the same time with the former ; but with this peculiar in- 
junction, that all divines should read it after service in their 
churches, (a. d. 1688.) The clergy were known universally to 
disapprove of these measures, and they were now resolved to 
disobey an order dictated by the most bigoted motives. They 
were determined to trust their cause to the favour of the people, 
and that universal jealousy which prevailed against the en- 
croachment of the crown. The first champions of this service 
of danger were Lloyd, bishop of St. Asaph ; Ken, of Bath and 
Wells ; Turner, of Ely ; Lake, of Chichester ; White, of Peter- 
borough ; and Trelawney, of Bristol. These, together with 
Sancroft, the primate, concerted the address, in the form of a 
petition to the king, which, with the warmest expressions of zeal 
and submission, remonstrated that they could not read his decla- 
ration consistent with their consciences, or the respect they 
owed the Protestant religion. 

The king in a fury summoned the bishops before the council, 
and there questioned them whether they would acknowledge 
their petition. They for some time declined giving an answer ; 
but, being urged by the chancellor, they at last owned it. On 
their refusal to give bail, an order was immediately drawn for 
their commitment to the Tower, and the crown lawyers received 
directions to prosecute them for a seditious libel. 

The twenty-ninth day of June, (a. d. 1688,) was fixed for 
their trial ; and their return was more splendidly attended than 
their imprisonment. The cause was looked upon as involving 
the fate of the nation ; and future freedom or future slavery 
awaited the decision. The dispute was learnedly managed by 
the lawyers on both sides. Holloway and Powel, two of the 



312 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

judges, declared themselves in favour of the bishops. The jury 
withdrew into a chamber, where they passed the whole night ; 
but next morning they returned into court, and pronounced the 
bishops not guilty. "Westminster Hall instantly rang with loud 
acclamations, which were communicated to the whole extent of 
the city. They even reached the camp at Hounslow, where the 
king was at dinner, in Lord Feversham's tent. His majesty 
demanded the cause of these rejoicings, and being informed that 
it was nothing but the soldiers shouting at the delivery of the 
bishops, " Call you that nothing ?" cried he ; " but so much the 
worse for them !" 

It was in this posture of affairs that all people turned their 
eyes upon William, prince of Orange, who had married Mary, 
the eldest daughter of king James. 

William was a prince who had, from his earliest entrance into 
business, been immersed in dangers, calamities, and politics. 
The ambition of France and the jealousies of Holland had 
served to sharpen his talents, and to give him a propensity for 
intrigue. 

This politic prince now plainly saw that James had incurred 
the most violent hatred of his subjects, (a. d. 1688.) He was 
minutely informed of their discontents ; and by seeming to dis- 
courage, still farther increased them, hoping to gain the kingdom 
for himself in the sequel. 

The time when the prince entered upon this enterprise was 
just when the people were in a flame about the recent insult 
offered to their bishops. He had before this made considerable 
augmentations to the Dutch fleet, and the ships were then lying 
ready in the harbour. Some additional troops were also levied, 
and sums of money raised for other purposes were converted to 
the advancement of this expedition. 

So well concerted were his measures, that, in three days, 
above four hundred transports were hired ; the army fell down 
the rivers and canals from Nimeguen, with all necessary stores ; 
and the prince set sail from Helvoetsluys, with a fleet of nearly 
five hundred vessels, and an army of above fourteen thousand 
men. 

It was given out that this invasion was intended for the coast 
of France ; and many of the English, who saw the fleet pass 
along their coasts, little expected to see it land on their own 



ATTEMPT TO RE-ESTABLISH THE CATHOLIC RELIGION ^ 1 3 



1 r^V 



>s 







—j.i- 



-,r<< 



WILLIAM III. LANDING IN ENGLAND. 



shores. Thus, after a voyage of two days, the prince landed 
his army at the village of Broxholme, in Torbay, on the fifth of 
November, which was the anniversary of the gunpowder treason. 

But though the invitation from the English was very general, 
the prince had for some time the mortification to find himself 
joined by very few. He marched first to Exeter, where the 
country people had been so much terrified at the executions 
which had ensued on Monmouth's rebellion, that they continued 
to observe a strict neutrality. He remained for ten days in ex- 
pectation of being joined by the malcontents, and at last began 
to despair of success. But, just when he began to deliberate 
about re-embarking his forces, he was joined by several persons 
of consequence, and the whole country soon after came flocking 
to his standard. The nobility, clergy, officers, and even the 
king's own servants and creatures, were unanimous in deserting 
James. Lord Churchill had been raised from the rank of a 
page, and had been invested with a high command in the army ; 
had been created a peer, and owed his whole fortune to the 
king's bounty ; even he deserted among the rest, and carried 
with him the duke of Grafton, the natural son of the late king, 
Colonel Berkeley, and some others. 

The pifince of Denmark, and Anne, his favourite daughter, 
40 2 B 



314 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

perceiving the desperation of his circumstances, resolved to 
leave him, and take part with the prevailing side. When he 
was told that the prince and princess had followed the rest of 
his favoui'ites, he was stung with most bitter anguish. « God 
help me," cried he, in the extremity of his agony, "my own 
children have forsaken me !" 

The king, alarmed every day more and more with the prospect 
of a general disaffection, was resolved to hearken to those who 
advised his quitting the kingdom. To prepare for this, he first 
sent away the queen, who arrived safely at Calais, under the 
conduct of Count Lauzun, an old favourite of the French king. 
He himself soon after disappeared in the night-time, attended 
only by Sir Edward Hale, a new convert ; but was discovered 
and brought back by the mob. 

But shortly after, being confined at Rochester, and observing 
that he was entirely neglected by his own subjects, he resolved 
to seek safety from the king of France, the only friend he had 
still remaining. He accordingly fled to the sea-side, attended 
by his natural son, the duke of Berwick, where he embarked for 
the continent, and arrived in safety at Ambleteuse in Picardy, 
from whence he hastened to the court of France, where he still 
enjoyed the empty title of a king, and the appellation of a saint, 
which flattered him more. 

The king having thus abdicated the throne, the next consi- 
deration was the appointing a successor, (a. d. 1688.) Some 
declared for a regent ; others, that the princess of Orange 
should be invested with regal power, and the young prince con- 
sidered as supposititious. After a long debate in both houses, 
a new sovereign was preferred to a regent, by a majority of two 
voices. It was agreed that the Prince and Princess of Orange 
should reign jointly as King and Queen of England, while the 
administration of government should be placed in the hands of 
the prince only. 



WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND HOLLAND. 316 




WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND HOLLAND- 
DEATH OF TURENNE. 

^g. HE rapid successes of Louis XIV. gave 
M alarm to Europe ; and a triple alli- 
ance was formed against Louis, between 
England, Holland, and Sweden, — and 
concluded in a few days. The grand 
pensioner of Holland, John de Witt, be- 
came the soul of this conspiracy, which 
obliged the king to sign the treaty of 
Aix-la-Chapelle, whereby he retained Flanders, and restored 
Franche-Comt^. (a. d. 1668.) 

During the peace, Louis turned his attention to the internal 
administration of his kingdom, and to the affairs of the church 
of France, disturbed by the quarrels of Jansenism. He next 
meditated taking vengeance upon Holland for the share which 
it had taken in the triple alliance. He entertained a profound 
contempt for all forms of government, save the monarchical ; 
and, notwithstanding that it was his interest to conciliate indus- 
trious citizens, who poured annually sixty millions of money 
into his markets, he listened only to his hatred and scorn 
against them. This was one of the great faults of his reign. 
Everywhere, and at all times, he found before him this nation 
of merchants, heretics, and republicans, whose existence irri- 
tated him, and whose wealth purchased enemies against him in 
the two worlds. Offended by certain medals, which represented 
the United Provinces as the arbiter of Europe, and enraged by 
the extravagance of certain gazetteers, the king seized upon 
these frivolous pretexts to declare war against the Dutch. He 
detached from their alliance the bishops of Cologne and Mun- 
ster, Charles XL, king of Sweden, and Charles II., king of 
England, always ready to sacrifice the interests of his people 
to the gratification of his pleasures. The Dutch navy covered 



316 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

the seas, and secured the commercial prosperity of that repub- 
lic bj protecting its magnificent establishments in the East In- 
dies. Louis XIV. reinforced his "with fifty English vessels, and 
entered Holland at the head of a hundred thousand men. 
(1672.) He had with him Turenne, Vauban, Luxembourg, and 
Louvois. The latter purveyed with admirable foresight for the 
maintenance and equipment of the troops, by the establishment 
of magazines of clothes and provisions, till then altogether un- 
known. Condd commanded the army ; and had, for his oppo- 
nent the celebrated William of Orange, captain-general, at 
twenty-two years of age, of the forces of the republic. The 
passage of the Rhine, more boasted of than glorious, was ef- 
fected, without danger, under the king's eye, in the face of the 
Dutch, whose numbers were too inferior for resistance. An 
imprudent charge cost the due de Longueville his life ; and 
Cond^ received a wound which compelled him to surrender the 
command to Turenne. In a few months, three provinces and 
forty fortresses were subdued. John de Witt, the grand pen- 
sioner, advised his countrymen to treat with the conqueror ; 
and advances were made to Louis XIV., in spite of the lively 
opposition of the prince of Orange. The illustrious Grotius, 
at the head of a Dutch deputation, made advantageous propo- 
sals to the king ; but Louis exacted still further concessions, 
blinded by his successes and self-love. He demanded the re- 
establishment of the Catholic religion in Holland — the abandon- 
ment of the temples to the Roman worship — twenty millions 
towards the expenses of the war — the cession of all that the 
United Provinces possessed beyond the Wahl and the Rhine — 
and, finally, propitiatory medals to be presented to him every 
year in token that the United Provinces held their existence 
and liberties from him. The Dutch people, exasperated by 
these cruel pretensions, turned their fury against John de Witt 
and the admiral Cornelius de Witt, his brother — accusing them 
of connivance with Louis. They were murdered by the popu- 
lace, their bodies torn in pieces, and subjected to a thousand 
outrages. Despair gave strength to the conquered ; and, ani- 
mated by patriotic devotion, they bored their dykes, and laid 
the country under water, in the hope of compelling the French 
to evacuate it. The Dutch admiral Ruyter strove gloriously 
against the combined fleets of France and England ; and the 



WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND HOLLAND. 31 7 

issue of the battle of Saultsbay delivered the coasts of the re- 
public from all danger of further insult. Europe began to be- 
stir itself in favour of Holland : the emperor Leopold, the 
king of Spain, most of the princes of the empire, and the 
elector of Brandenburg, Frederick- William, the first founder 
of the high fortunes of his house — all took alarm at the ambi- 
tion of Louis XIV., and leagued against him. Charles IL 
himself was compelled, by his parliament, to abandon France. 
Menaced by such a host of enemies, Louis withdrew his troops 
from the conquered towns, the fortifications of which he forgot 
to destroy ; and all Holland was, in a short time, evacuated, 
the king retaining only Grave and Maestricht. But Franche- 
Comt^ indemnified him for so many losses ; by his order, the 
due de Noailles and Vauban entered that province, which they 
conquered, for the second time, in six weeks, and snatched irre- 
vocably from Spain. (1674.) 

The great Cond^, making head against the prince of Orange, 
fought now his last battle, near Senef, in Flanders. The battle 
seemed won ; but William rallied his troops, and arrested the 
conquerors. Three times did Conde charge him, without being 
able to drive him from his impregnable position. The loss was 
dreadful on both sides ; twenty-seven thousand dead remained 
on the field of battle. Condd had three horses killed under 
him. The battle lasted fourteen hours, and the issue of the 
day remained still undecided. 

Turenne was more fortunate in Alsace. He conquered, at 
Sintzheim, the old duke of Lorraine, and the army of the Im- 
perial Circles, commanded by Eneas de Caprara. After this 
victory, he passed the Rhine and entered the palatinate, wher# 
he tarnished his laurels by permitting frightful ravages : two 
towns and twenty-five villages there were delivered a prey to 
the flames. Speedily, however, recalled into Alsace, by the pro- 
gress of the army of the Circles, he awaited it in the environs 
of Landau and Wissemburg, where he remained in defiance of 
the formal orders of Louvois and of Louis XIV., by whom he 
was ordered to defend Champagne and Lorraine, which were 
threatened with invasion. Turenne, however, succeeded in 
convincing the king, and justified his conduct by twice beating 
an enemy superior to him in force — first, at Ansheim, and after- 
wards at Turkheim, and obliging him to evacuate Alsace, and 

2b2 



318 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

repass the Rhine, reduced in numbers by one-half. This cam- 
paign and the following were Turenne's master-pieces, and put 
the final seal to his reputation. The emperor sent against him 
Montecuculli, the greatest of his captains, and conqueror of 
Saint-Gothard. The two great rivals first made mutual proof 
of each other's skill, in a series of scientific manoeuvres, which 
remain to this day the admiration of tacticians. At length, 
both seemed on the point of giving battle, near the village of 
Salzbach, in the territory of Baden, and Turenne conceived 
himself secure of victory, when, in visiting a battery, he was 
struck dead by a cannon-shot. (1675.) The same ball carried 
away the arm of M. de Saint-Hilaire, lieutenant-general of in- 
fantry, who, on seeing his son burst into tears by his side, ex- 
claimed — "Not for me, my son, but for this great man, should 
you weep." Turenne died at the age of sixty-four. Born a 
Protestant, he had become a convert to Catholicism, and was 
buried in the tomb of the kings, at Saint-Denis. Montecuculli, 
informed of his death, compelled his two successors, Generals 
De Lorges and Vaubrun, to repass the Rhine. Vaubrun was 
killed in the passage of the river, but De Lorges efi"ected his 
retreat. The free town of Strasburg immediately ofi'ered its 
bridge to Montecuculli, who penetrated into Alsace. Cond^, 
despatched to meet him, arrested his march, and forced him to 
evacuate the province. This was the last campaign of these 
two great captains. 

The due de Crdqui sufi'ered himself to be beaten, in the same 
year, at Consurbruck, by the duke of Lorraine ; but this reverse 
was efiaced by some brilliant successes. Messina had thrown 
(^ the Spanish yoke, and placed itself under the protection of 
France. Assisted by the Dutch fleet, the Spaniards endea- 
voured to retake it. Duquesne, at the head of a French fleet, 
frustrated their plans. He gained the naval battle of Strom- 
boli, and that of Agosta, which cost Admiral Ruyter his life. 
(1676.) The mar^chal de Vivonne completed the destruction 
of the enemy's fleet, on its coming out of Palermo. These 
glorious operations were followed by two brilliant campaigns of 
the king, in Flanders. The heroic taking of Valenciennes, by 
the musketeers, in open day, (1677,) — those of Cambray and 
Saint-Omer — and the victory of Cassel, gained by the duke of 
Orleans, the king's brother, against the prince of Orange, ter- 




DEATH OF TUBENHS. 



WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 



321 



ralnated this war, unjustly undertaken, but gloriously concluded ; 
and Louis saw himself the arbiter of the destinies of Europe. 
The states-general of Holland were weary of a struggle sus- 
tained only by means of their subsidies ; and a congress assem- 
bled at Nimeguen, where peace was signed on the 10th of August, 
1678. Holland recovered all which had been taken from her 
during the Avar; Spain abandoned Franche-Comt^, and a great 
number of places in the Netherlands ; the emperor ceded the 
two Imperial towns, of which the mar^chal de Feuillade had 
gained possession, and surrendered Friburg in exchange for 
Philipsburg ; and France's right of possession over Alsace was 
confirmed. The young duke of Lorraine, the nephew of 
Charles IV., refused to submit himself to the law of Louis XIV., 
and rejected the conditions on which he was to be re-established 
in his states, which France, therefore, continued to occupy ; 
and Sicily was evacuated. 




41 



322 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



WAE BETWEEN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 




the advantages secured by the 
peace of Nimeguen, Louis added 
others, not less important, which he 
obtained by fraud and violence. It 
was stated, in the treaty, that the 
various cessions should be accom- 
panied by all their dependencies; 
but it had been the intention of the 
negotiators that all these annexations should be regu- 
lated in concert. Louis, however, assumed the right 
to arrange them alone ; and established, in conse- 
quence, a sovereign court at Besangon, and two coun- 
cils, equally supreme, one at Brisach, and the other at Metz, 
commissioned to pronounce, without appeal, on the annexations 
to his crown. By this arbitrary proceeding, the king of 
Sweden, the duke of Wirtemberg, and Deux Ponts, the elector 
palatine, the elector of Treves, and an infinity of other princes, 
were despoiled of a portion of their dominions, and summoned 
to do homage in respect of others of their possessions. Louis 
seized upon Strasburg, in a manner not less violent. Louvois 
and the marquis de Montclar appeared suddenly before that 
place with twenty thousand men. Induced by threats and se- 
duction to capitulate, it was annexed to France, and, fortified 
by Vauban, became the rampart of the kingdom against Ger- 
many. 

Justly indignant at these usurpations, the powers of Europe 
signed a new league on the very day of the capture of Stras- 
burg. But three hundred thousand Turks had, at that period, 
poured down upon the empire ; and Vienna, reduced by them 
to extremity, must have fallen, but for the aid of John Sobi- 
eski, king of Poland, and Prince Charles of Lorraine, both of 
whom had joined themselves to the army of the Circles. Leo- 



WAR BETWEEN FRANCE AND OERMANY. 



323 



pold, and most of the other powers, too much weakened to 
recommence the war, protested against France without acting. 
Spain, alone, ventured to fight, and lost Courtray, Dixmude, 
and Luxemburg. A truce of twenty years, to which the empe- 
ror and Holland were parties, was concluded at Ratisbon. 
(1684.) By this truce, the king was authorized to retain, dur- 
ing its continuance, Luxemburg, Strasburg, and all the annexa- 
tions decreed by his sovereign courts. Thus Louis XIV., in 
extending his conquests by illegitimate methods, accumulated 
on his own head hoarded resentments, which were destined to 
break out against him in the day of adversity. 




'Jn\ 




324 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



ACCESSION OF PHILIP V. OF SPAIN. 



fT-'S 




, -^ y xi^ixi,^^)^ J--..., king of Spain, was 

^(v. \A languishing at the point of death ; 

1^ f .,-'•! and the kings of France and Eng- 

'^'^-^'^■'^ land, together with the emperor Leo- 



pold, were already meditating the partition 
of his vast territories among themselves. 
Charles, by his first will, executed in 1698, 
had nominated as his heir the electoral prince 
of Bavaria, aged only six years. That young prince, however, 
died in the following year; and the expiring monarch, after 
long consultation with the pope, the Spanish universities, and his 
own council, appointed as his successor Philip, due d'Anjou, 
grandson of his eldest sister Maria-Theresa, and son of the 
dauphin of France. In case Philip should refuse to renounce 
his claims to the crown of France, his brother, the due de Berry, 
was substituted for him ; and after the due de Berry was named 
the archduke Charles, the second son of the emperor. In any 
event, the testator forbade the dismemberment of the Spanish 
monarchy. He died in 1700. 

Louis XIV. knew that to accept this will would be to involve 
France in a new war, and brave Europe, at all times sufficiently 
inclined to reproach him with aiming at universal monarchy. 
He could not, however, resist the temptation of placing so bril- 
liant a crown on the head of his grandson ; and, after some 
hesitation, he accepted — acknowledged the due d'Anjou as 
king by the title of Philip V., and sent him into Spain with 
those celebrated words : " The Pyrenees exist no longer." The 
emperor immediately protested ; and a year had scarcely 
elapsed ere Holland, England, and the empire made common 
cause against Louis XIV- That monarch had committed two 
grievous faults — the one in sending letters-patent to Philip V., 




tOCIS XIV. ACtlfOWLEDOES HIS QKLTSDSOS EISA OF SPAtJf. 



2C 



ACCESSION OF PHILIP V. OF SPAIN. 



827 



whereby his rights to the crown of France were preserved 
against the express will of the testator; the other, in acknow- 
ledging as king of England, on the death of James IL, his son 
the prince of Wales, in defiance of a formal clause m the 
treaty of Ryswick. The tears of James's widow and the im- 
portunities of Madame de Maintenon had prevailed with the 
king over the unanimous advice of his council. The combined 
powers made immediate preparation for that terrible war, known 
in history under the name of the war of succession, (1701,) in 
which the north of Europe alone had no part, divided, as it then 
was, between Peter the Great and Charles XII. The only 
supporters of Louis XIV. against this formidable league were 
the king of Portugal, the duke of Savoy, and the electors of 
Bavaria and Cologne. 




328 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




\:j 



SIEGE OF VIENNA. 



j - g^ k HE Hungarians, whose privileges the emperor 
gjp '\V|^c^J^ Leopold had never suflScientlj respected, had 
again broken out into rebellion ; and Tekeli, the 
head of the insurgents, had called in the Turks 
to the support of his countrymen. By the as- 
sistance of the basha of Buda, he ravaged Sile- 
sia, and reduced many important places in Hun- 
gary; while Mahomet IV., the reigning sultan, was preparing 
the most formidable force that the Ottoman empire had ever 
sent against Christendom. 




SIEGE OF VIENNA. 329 

Leopold, foreseeing that the gathering storm would finally 
break upon Germany, besides demanding the assistance of the 
princes of the empire, concluded an offensive and defensive 
alliance with John Sobieski, king of Poland. Meanwhile the 
grand vizier, Kara Mustapha, passing through Hungary, at the 
head of fifty thousand janizaries, thirty thousand spahis, and 
two hundred thousand common men, assembled for the occasion, 
with baggage and artillery in proportion to such a multitude, 
advanced towards Vienna. The duke of Lorrain, who com- 
manded the Imperial forces, attempted in vain to oppose the 
progress of the invader. The Turks, under the grand vizier, 
took the right of the Danube, and Tekeli, with the Hungarians, 
the left. Seeing his capital threatened on every side, the em- 
peror retired first to Lintz, and afterwards to Passau. Two- 
thirds of the inhabitants followed the court ; and nothing was 
to be seen, on all sides, but fugitives, equipages, and carriages 
laden with movables. The whole empire was thrown into con- 
sternation. 

The garrison of Vienna amounted to about fifteen thousand 
men ; and the citizens able to bear arms, to near fifty thousand. 
The Turks invested the town on the 17th of July, 1683 ; and 
they had not only destroyed the suburbs, but made a breach in 
the body of the place by the first of September. The duke of 
Lorrain had been so fortunate as to prevent the Hungarians from 
joining the Turks, but was unable to lend the garrison any re- 
lief; and an assault was every moment expected, when a deli- 
verer appeared. John Sobieski, king of Poland, having joined 
his troops to those of Saxony, Bavaria, and the Circles, made 
a signal to the besieged from the top of the mountain of Calem- 
berg, and inspired them with new hopes. Kara Mustapha, 
who, from a contempt of the Christians, had neglected to push 
the assault, and who, amidst the progress of ruin, had wan- 
toned in luxury, was now made sensible of his mistake, when 
too late to repair it. 

The Christians, to the number of sixty-four thousand, de- 
scended the mountain, under the command of the king of Po- 
land, the duke of Lorrain, and an incredible number of German 
princes. The grand vizier advanced to meet them at the head 
of the main body of the Turkish army, while he ordered an 
assault to be made upon the city with twenty thousand men, 
42 2c2 



830 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



•who were left in the trenches. The assault failed ; and the 
Turks, being seized with a panic, were routed almost without re- 
sistance. Only five hundred of the victors fell, and not above 
one thousand of the vanquished. And so great was the terror, 
and so precipitate the flight of the infidels, that they aban- 
doned not only their tents, artillery, and baggage, but left be- 
hind them even the famous standard of Mahomet, which was 
sent as a present to the pope ! The Turks received another 
defeat in the plain of Barcan ; and all Hungary, on both sides 
of the Danube, was recovered by the Imperial arms. 

The king of France, who had supported the malcontents in 
Hungary, and who encouraged the invasion of the Turks, raised 
however the blockade of Luxemburg, when they approached 
Vienna. "I will never," said he, " attack a Christian prince, 
while Christendom is in danger from the infidels." He was con- 
fident, when he made this declaration, that the Imperial city 
would be taken, and had an army on the frontiers of Germany, 
ready to oppose the farther progress of those very Turks whom 
he had invited thither ! By becoming the protector of the 
empire, he hoped to get his son elected king of the Romans. 
But this scheme being defeated, and the apprehensions of 
Christendom removed by the relief of Vienna and the expulsion 
of the Turks, Louis returned to the siege of Luxemburg, 
(a. d. 1684 ;) and reduced, in a short time, not only that place, 
but also Courtray and Dixmude, as already related. 



^[^Wlllf// /J^-?:!^?^^;^ 




KING HILIP'S WAK. 



381 



»*FW ►'-.« 




BURNING OP DEERFIELD. 



KING PHILIP'S WAK. 




HE state of prosperous repose 
which New England enjoyed for 
several years was interrupted by 
a general conspiracy of the In- 
' dian tribes, (1674,) that pro- 
duced a war so bloody and for- 
~ midable as to threaten for some 
time the utter destruction of all 
the settlements. This hostile 
combination was promoted by a 
young chief whose history reminds us of the exploits of Opechan- 
canough in Virginia. He was the second son of Massasoit, a 
prince who ruled a powerful tribe inhabiting territories adjacent 
to the settlement of Plymouth at the time when the English first 



332 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

gained a footing in the country. The father had entered into 
an alliance with the colonists, and, after his death, his two sons 
expressed an earnest desire to retain and cultivate their friend- 
ship. They even requested of the magistrates of Plymouth, as 
a mark of identification with their allies, that English names 
might be given them ; and, in compliance with their desire, the 
elder received the name of Alexander, and the younger of Philip. 
But these expressions of good-will were prompted entirely by 
the artifice that regulated their schemes of hostility ; and they 
were both shortly after detected and disappointed in a treache- 
rous attempt to involve the Narragansets in hostilities with the 
colonists. The haughty spirit of the elder brother was over- 
whelmed by this disgrace. Unable to brook the detection and 
discomfiture of his perfidy, and perhaps additionally stung by 
the generous clemency of the colonists, which lent aggravation to 
his infamy, he abandoned himself to despair, and died of the 
corrosion of rage and mortification. Philip, after the death of 
bis brother, renewed the alliance between his tribe and the 
English; but nothing was farther from his thoughts than the 
fulfilment of his engagements. Subtle, fierce, artful, and dissem- 
bling, yet stern in adventurous purpose and relentless cruelty, 
he meditated a universal conspiracy of the Indians for the ex- 
tirpation of the colonists, and for several years pursued this de- 
sign as secretly and successfully as the numerous diflSculties that 
encompassed him would permit. Next to the growing power of 
the European settlers, nothing more keenly provoked his indig- 
nation than the progress of their missionary labours ; and in 
reality, it was to these labours, and some of the consequences 
they produced, that the colonists were indebted for their preser- 
vation from the ruin that would have attended the success of 
Philip's machinations. Some of the tribes to whom he applied 
revealed his propositions to the missionaries ; and several Indians 
who had embraced his schemes were persuaded by their con- 
verted brethren to renounce them. The magistrates of Plymouth 
frequently remonstrated with him on the dishonour he incurred 
and the danger he provoked by the perfidious machinations of 
which from time to time they obtained information ; and by re- 
newed and more solemn engagements than before, he endeavoured 
to disarm their vigilance and allay their apprehension. For two 
or three years before the present period, he pm-sued his hostile 



KCNG PHILIP'S WAR. 333 

projects with such successful duplicity as to elude discovery, and 
even suspicion ; and had now succeeded in uniting some of the 
fiercest and most powerful of the Indian tribes in a confederacy 
to make war on the colonists to the point of extermination. 

A converted Indian, who was labouring as a missionary among 
the tribes of his countrymen, having discovered the plot, re- 
vealed it to the governor of Plymouth, and was soon after found 
dead in a field, under circumstances that left no doubt of assas- 
sination. Some neighbouring Indians, suspected of being the 
perpetrators of this crime, were apprehended, and solemnly tried 
before a jury, consisting half of English and half of Indians, 
who returned a verdict of guilty. At their execution, one of 
the convicts confessed the murder, — declaring, withal, that its 
commission had been planned and instigated by Philip ; and this 
crafty chief, alarmed at the perilous disclosure, now threw oif 
the mask, and summoned his confederates to his aid. The 
States of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut took arms 
for their common defence, — having first employed every means 
to induce Philip to accommodate the quarrel by a friendly 
treaty. But a bloodless issue was not what Philip desired ; and 
perceiving that the season of secret conspiracy was over, he re- 
jected all negotiation, and commenced a general war, (1675,) 
which was carried on with great vigour and various success. 
Though Philip's own tribe supplied no more than five hundred 
warriors, he had so increased his force by alliances that he was 
able to bring three thousand men into the field. This formidable 
host, conducted by a chief who was persuaded that the war must 
terminate in the total ruin of one or other of the conflicting 
parties, made exertions of which the Indians were hitherto sup- 
posed incapable. Several battles were fought, and all the fury, 
havoc, and cruelty which distinguish Indian warfare were ex- 
perienced in their fullest extent by the English. Wherever the 
enemy marched, their route was marked with slaughter and deso- 
lation. Massachusetts and Plymouth were the states that suf- 
fered principally from the contest. There, especially, the In- 
dians were so mingled with the European colonists, '"hat there 
was scarcely a part of the country which was not exposed to 
danger, or a family which had not to bewail the loss of a relative 
or friend. In a woodland scene near the village of Deerfield, 
in Massachusetts, Captain Lothrop and a party of the provincial 



334 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

troops vrere suddenly attacked by an Indian force commanded 
by Philip himself; and, unaware that to encounter such an 
enemy with effect he ought to place his men in phalanx, Lothrop 
posted them separately behind trees, where he and every one of 
them, to the number of ninety-three, were presently shot down ; 
other provincial troops now pressing up with unavailing succour, 
defeated the Indians and put them to flight. But, more elated 
with their first success than daunted by their final check, these 
savages speedily reappeared before the village and shook the 
scalps and bloody garments of the slaughtered captain and his 
troop before the eyes of the inhabitants. Deerfield was shortly 
after deserted by its harassed settlers, and destroyed by the 
triumphant Indians. It is a truth not yet sufficiently illus- 
trated, that, in all the Indian wars of this period, the savages, 
from the condition of the country, their own superior acquaint- 
ance with it, and their peculiar habits of life and qualities of 
body and mind, enjoyed advantages which wellnigh counter- 
balanced the superiority of European science. They seemed to 
unite the instinct and ferocity of the brutal creation with the 
art and sagacity of rational beings, and were, in single combat 
and in the conflict of very small numbers, as superior, as in 
more numerous encounter they were inferior, to civilized men. 
Changing their own encampments with facility, and advancing 
upon those of the colonists with the wary, dexterous secrecy of 
beasts of prey, with them there was almost always the spirit and 
audacity of attack, and with their adversaries the disadvantages 
of defence and the consternation produced by surprise; nor 
could the colonists obtain the means of attacking, in their tui'n, 
without following the savages into forests and swamps, where 
the benefit of their higher martial qualities was lost, and the 
system of European warfare rendered impracticable. The 
savages had long been acquainted with fire-arms, and were re- 
markably expert in the use of them. 

For some time the incursions of the Indians could not be 
restrained ; and every enterprise or skirmish in which they 
reaped the slightest credit or advantage increased the number 
of their allies. But the savage artifice which Philip employed, 
on one occasion, for the purpose of recruiting his forces, recoiled 
with merited injury on himself. Repairing with a band of his 
adherents to the territory of a neutral tribe, he caused certain 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 335 

of tlie people who belonged to it to be surprised and assassi- 
nated ; and then, proceeding to the head-quarters of the tribe, he 
affirmed that he had seen the murder committed by a party of 
the Plymouth soldiers. The tribe, in a flame of rage, declared 
war on the colonists ; but their vindictive sentiments soon took 
another direction ; for one of the wounded men, having reco- 
vered his senses, made a shift to crawl to the habitations of his 
countrymen, and, though mortally injured, was able, before he 
expired, to disclose the real author of the tragedy. Revoking 
their former purpose, the tribe thereupon declared war on Philip, 
and espoused the cause of his enemies. Hostilities were pro- 
tracted till near the close of the following year, when the steady 
efforts and determined courage of the colonists prevailed ; and, 
after a series of defeats, and the loss of all his family and chief 
councillors, Philip himself was killed by one of his own tribe 
whom he had offended. (August, 1676.) Deprived of its chief 
abettor, the war was soon terminated by the submission of the 
Indians. Yet to certain of the tribes the colonists sternly 
denied all terms of capitulation, and warned them, before their 
surrender, that their treachery had been so gross and unpro- 
voked, and their outrages so atrocious and unpardonable, that 
they must abide the issue of judicial arbitrament. In confor- 
mity with this declaration, some of the chiefs were tried and 
executed for murder ; and a number of their followers were 
transported to the West Indies, and sold as slaves. Never 
before had the people of New England been engaged in hostili- 
ties so fierce, so bloody, or so desolating. Many houses and 
flourishing villages were reduced to ashes ; and in the course of 
the warfare six hundred persons of European birth or descent, 
composing the flower and strength of several of the districts, 
either fell in battle, were massacred in their dwellings, or ex- 
pired beneath the tortures inflicted by the savages on their cap- 
tives. The military operations of the colonists in these cam- 
paigns were thought, and perhaps justly, to disclose less skill 
and conduct than had been displayed in the Pequod War. They 
were, indeed, no longer commanded by the experienced officers 
who accompanied their ancestors from Europe ; and they were 
opposed to an enemy much more formidable than the Pequods. 
But the firm, enduring valour they manifested was worthy of 
men whose characters were formed under institutions no less 



336 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

favorable to freedom than virtue, and irho fought in defence of 
all they held dear and valuable. Among other officers, Captain 
Church, of Massachusetts, and Captain Dennison, of Connecticut, 
have been particularly celebrated by the provincial historians 
for their heroic ardour and fortitude. In the commencement of 
the war, the surprising treachery practised by the hostile In- 
dians naturally excited apprehensions of the defection of the 
Indian congregations which the missionaries had collected and 
partly civilized. But not one of these people proved unfaithful 
to their benefactors. 

The Indian warfare by which New England was desolated 
during this period was not bounded by the hostilities of Philip 
and his confederates. An attack was made at the same time on 
New Hampshire and Maine, by the tribes that were situated in 
the vicinity of these settlements. The Indians complained that 
they had been defrauded and insulted by some of the English 
traders in that quarter ; but strong suspicions were entertained 
that their hostilities were promoted by the French government, 
now re-established in Acadia. The invasion of those territories 
was distinguished by the usual guile, ferocity, and cruelty of the 
savages. Many of the inhabitants were massacred, and others 
carried into captivity. Prompt assistance was rendered to her 
allies by Massachusetts ; and after a variety of sharp engage- 
ments, the Indians sustained a considerable defeat. They were, 
notwithstanding, still able and willing to continue the war ; and 
both their numbers and their animosity were increased by a 
measure which the provincial government adopted against them. 
It was proposed to the General Court of Massachusetts to invite 
the Mohawk tribe, who, from time immemorial, had been the 
enemies of the Eastern Indians, to make a descent on their ter- 
ritories at this juncture. The lawfulness of using such auxilia- 
ries was questioned by some ; but it was deemed a satisfactory 
answer to the objection, that Abraham confederated with the 
Amorites for the rescue of his kinsman, Lot, from the hands of 
a common enemy ; and messengers were accordingly despatched 
to solicit the co-operation of the Mohawks. Little entreaty was 
necessary to induce them to comply with the invitation ; and a 
band of Mohawk warriors quickly marched against their heredi- 
tary foes. The expedition, however, so far from producing the 
slightest benefit, was attended with serious disadvantage to the 



KING PHILIP'S WAR. 



337 



cause of the colonists. The Indians who were their proper ene- 
mies suffered very little from the Mohawk invasion ; while some 
powerful tribes, who had been hitherto at peace with the colonists, 
exasperated by injuries or affronts which they received from 
those invaders, now declared war both against them and their 
English allies. At last, the intelligence of Philip's overthrow, 
and the probability of stronger forces being thus enabled to 
march against them, inclined the Eastern Indians to hearken to 
proposals of peace. The war in this quarter was terminated by 
a treaty favourable to the Indians, to whom the colonists en- 
gaged to pay a certain quantity of corn yearly as a quitrent for 
their lands. 




43 



2D 



338 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




BATTtE OF AUOHRIM. 



ACCESSION OF WILLIAM III. OF ENGLAND^-- 
BATTLES OF THE BOYNE AND OF AUr 
GHRIM. 

^ILLIAM, as soon as 
elected to the throne, 
began to experience 
the difficulty of go- 
verning a people who 
were more ready to examine the 
commands of their superiors than 
to obey them. (a. d. 1688.) 

His reign commenced with an 
attempt similar to that which had 
been the principal cause of all the 
disturbances in the preceding reign, and which had excluded 
the monarch from the throne. William was a Calvinist, and 
consequently averse to persecution; he therefore began by 






WILtliK IIL 



ACCESSION OF WILLUM IIL 341 

attempting those laws which enjoined uniformity of worship ; 
and, though he could not entirely succeed in his design, a tole- 
ration was granted to such dissenters as should take the oaths 
of allegiance and hold no private conventicle. 

In the mean time, James, whose authority was still acknow- 
ledged in Ireland, embarked at Brest for that kingdom, and on 
May 22d arrived at Kinsale. He soon after made his public 
entry into Dublin, amidst the acclamations of the inhabitants. 
He found the appearance of things in that country equal to his 
most sanguine expectations. Tyrconnel, the lord-lieutenant, 
was devoted to his interests ; his old army was steady, and a 
new one was raised, amounting together to nearly forty thou- 
sand men. As soon as the season would permit, he went to lay 
siege to Londonderry, a town of small importance in itself, but 
rendered famous by the stand it made on this occasion. 

The besieged endured the most poignant sufferings from fa- 
tigue and famine, until at last relieved by a storeship that hap- 
pily broke the boom laid across the river to prevent a supply. 
The joy of the inhabitants at this unexpected relief was only 
equalled by the rage and disappointment of the besiegers. The 
army of James was so dispirited by the success of this enterprise, 
that they abandoned the siege in the night, and retired with 
precipitation, after having lost about nine thousand men before 
the place. 

It was upon the opposite sides of the river Boyne that both 
armies came in sight of each other, inflamed with all the ani- 
mosities arising from a difference of religion, hatred, and re- 
venge, (a. d. 1690.) The river Boyne at this place was not 
so deep but that men might wade over on foot ; however, the 
banks were rugged, and rendered dangerous by old houses 
and ditches, which served to defend the latent enemy. William, 
who now headed the Protestant army, had no sooner arrived, 
but he rode along the side of the river in sight of both armies, 
to make proper observations upon the plan of battle ; but in 
the mean time, being perceived by the enemy, a cannon was 
privately brought out, and planted against him where he was 
sitting. The shot killed several of his followers, and he him- 
self was wounded in the shoulder. 

Early the next morning, at six o'clock. King William gave 
orders to force a passage over the river. This the army under- 

2i>2 



542 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

took in three different places ; and, after a furious cannonading, 
the battle began with unusual vigour. The Irish troops, though 
reckoned the best in Europe abroad, have always fought indif- 
ferently at home. After an obstinate resistance, they fled with 
precipitation, leaving the French and Swiss regiments, who 
came to their assistance, to make the best retreat they could- 
William led on his horse in person, and contributed by his 
activity and vigilance to secure the victory. James was not in 
the battle, but stood aloof during the action on the hill of Dun- 
more, surrounded with some squadrons of horse, and at inter- 
vals was heard to exclaim, when he saw his own troops repulsing 
those of the enemy, " 0, spare my English subjects !" 
' The Irish lost about fifteen hundred men, and the Protestants 
about one-third of that number. The victory was splendid, 
and almost decisive ; but the death of the duke of Schomberg, 
who was shot as he was crossing the water, seemed to outweigh 
the whole loss sustained by the enemy. 

The last battle fought in favour of James was at Aughrlm. 
(a. d. 1691.) The enemy fought with surprising fury, and the 
horse were several times repulsed; but the English, wading 
through the middle of a bog up to the waist in mud, and rally- 
ing with some difficulty on the firm ground on the other side, 
renewed the combat with great fury. St. Ruth, the Irish gene- 
ral, being killed, his fate so discouraged his troops that they 
gave way on all sides, and retreated to Limerick, where they 
resolved to make a final stand, after having lost above five thou- 
sand of the flower of their army. Limerick, the last retreat 
of the Irish forces, made a brave defence ; but soon seeing the 
enemy advanced within ten paces of the bridge-foot, and per- 
ceiving themselves surrounded on all sides, they determined to 
capitulate ; a negotiation was immediately begun, and hostili- 
ties ceased on both sides. The Roman Catholics, by this ca- 
pitulation, were restored to the enjoyment of those liberties in 
the exercise of their religion which they had possessed in the 
reign of King Charles the Second. All persons were indulged 
with free leave to remove with their families and effects to any 
other country, except England and Scotland. In consequence 
of this, above fourteen thousand of those who had fought for 
King James went over into France, having transports provided 
by government for conveying them thither. 



ACCESSION OF WILLIAM IIL 348 

James was now reduced to the lowest state of despondence ; his 
designs upon England were quite frustrated, so that nothing 
was left his friends but the hopes of assassinating the monarch 
on the throne, (a. d. 1692.) These base attempts, as barbarous 
as they were useless, were not entirely disagreeable to the tem- 
per of James. It is said he encouraged and proposed them ; 
but they all proved unserviceable to his cause, and only ended 
in the destruction of the undertakers. From that time till he 
died, which was about seven years, he continued to reside at 
St. Germains, a pensioner on the bounty of Louis, and assisted 
by occasional liberalities from his daughter and friends in Eng- 
land. He died on the sixteenth day of September, in the year 
1700, after having laboured under a tedious sickness ; and 
many miracles, as the people thought, were wrought at his 
tomb. Indeed, the latter part of his life was calculated to in- 
spire the superstitious with reverence for his piety. He sub- 
jected himself to acts of uncommon penance and mortification. 
He frequently visited the poor monks of La Trappe, who were 
edified by his humble and pious deportment. His pride and 
arbitrary temper seemed to have vanished with his greatness ; 
he became afi'able, kind, and easy to all his dependants ; and 
at his last illness conjured his son to prefer religion to every 
worldly advantage — a counsel which that prince strictly obeyed. 
He died with great marks of devotion, and was interred, at his 
own request, in the church of theiEnglish Benedictines at Paris, 
without any funeral solemnity. 

William, upon accepting of the crown, was resolved to pre- 
serve, as much as he was able, that share of prerogative which 
still was left him. But at length he became fatigued with op- 
posing the laws which parliament every day were laying round 
his authority, and gave up the contest. He admitted every 
restraint upon the prerogative in England, upon condition of 
being properly supplied with the means of humbling the power 
of France. War, and the balance of power in Europe, were 
all he knew, or indeed desired to understand. Provided the 
parliament furnished him with supplies for these purposes, he 
permitted them to rule the internal polity at their pleasure. 
For the prosecution of the war with France, the sums of money 
granted to him were incredible. The nation, not content with 
furnishing him with such sums of money as they were capable 



344 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

of raising by the taxes of the year, mortgaged these taxes, and 
involved themselves in debts which they have never since been 
able to discharge. For all that profusion of wealth granted 
to maintain the imaginary balance of Europe, England received 
in return the empty reward of military glory in Flanders, and 
the consciousness of having given their allies, particularly the 
Dutch, frequent opportunities of being ungrateful. 

The war with France continued during the greatest part of 
this king's reign ; but at length the treaty of Ryswick (a. d, 
1697) put an end to those contentions, in which England had 
engaged without policy and came off without advantage. 

In the general pacification, her interests seemed entirely de- 
serted ; and for all the treasures she had sent to the continent, 
and all the blood which she had shed there, the only equivalent 
she received was an acknowledgment of King William's title 
from the king of France. 

William was naturally of a very feeble constitution ; and it 
was by this time almost exhausted by a series of continual dis- 
quietude and action. He had endeavoured to repair his consti- 
tution, or at least to conceal its decays, by exercise and riding. 
On the twenty-first day of February, in riding to Hampton- 
court from Kensington, his horse fell under him, and he was 
thrown with such violence that his collar-bone was fractured. 
His attendants conveyed him to the palace at Hampton-court, 
where the fracture was reduced^,and in the evening he returned to 
Kensington in his coach. The jolting of the carriage disunited 
the fracture once more, and the bones were again replaced, under 
Bidloo, his physician. This in a robust constitution would 
have been a trifling misfortune ; but in him it was fatal. For 
some time he appeared in a fair way of recovery ; but, falling 
asleep on his couch, he was seized with a shivering, which ter- 
minated in a fever and diarrhoea, which soon became dangerous 
and desperate. Perceiving his end approaching, the objects of 
his former care still lay next his heart ; and the fate of Europe 
seemed to remove the sensations he might be supposed to feel 
for his own. The earl of Albemarle arriving from Holland, he 
conferred with him in private on the posture of affairs abroad. 
Two days after, having received the sacrament from Archbishop 
Tenison, he expired in the fifty-second year of his age, after 
having reigned thirteen years. 




QUEBN ANNE. 



-^JiBb^^ 



ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE OF ENGLAND. 



S47 







UABLBOBOUOH. 



ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE OF ENGLAND. 




NNE, married to Prince George of Denmark, 
ascended the thron^^ the thirty-eighth year of 
her age, to the ger^B satisfaction of all parties. 
(a. d, 1702.) She was the second daughter of 
King James, by his first wife, the daughter of 
Chancellor Hyde, afterwards earl of Clarendon. 
Upon coming to the crown, she resolved to de- 
clare A¥ar against France, and communicated her intentions to 
the House of Commons, by whom it was approved, and war 
was proclaimed accordingly. 

This declaration of war, on the part of the English, was 
seconded by similar declarations by the Dutch and Germans on 
the same day. The French monarch could not suppress his 
anger at such a combination ; but his chief resentment fell upon 
the Dutch. He declared, with great emotion, that, as for these 
gentlemen pedlars^ the Dutch, they should one day repent their 
insolence and presumption in declaring war against one whose 
power they had formerly felt and dreaded. However, the 
affairs of the allies were no way influenced by his threats. The 



348 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

duke of Marlborough had his views gratified in being appointed 
general of the English forces ; and he was still farther flattered 
by the Dutch, who, though the earl of Athlone had a right to share 
the command, appointed Marlborough generalissimo of the 
allied army. And it must be confessed, that few men shone 
more, either in debate or action, than he ; serene in the midst 
of danger, and indefatigable in the cabinet ; so that he became 
the most formidable enemy to France that England ever pro- 
duced, since the conquering times of Cressy and Agincourt. 

A great part of the history of this reign consists in battles 
fought upon the continent, which, though of very little advan- 
tage to the interest of England, were very great additions to 
its honour. These triumphs, it is true, are passed away, and 
nothing remains of them but the names of Blenheim, Ramilies, 
Oudenarde, and Malplaquet, where the allied army gained 
great, but, with respect to England, useless victories. 

A conquest of much greater national importance was gained 
with less expense of blood and treasure in Spain. The minis- 
try of England, understanding that the French were employed 
in equipping a strong squadron in Brest, sent out Sir Cloudesly 
Shovel and Sir George Rooke to watch their motions. Sir 
George, however, had further orders to convoy a body of forces 
in transport-ships to Barcelona, upon which a fruitless attack 
was made by the prince dBttlesse. Finding no hopes, there- 
fore, from this expedition,^Ptwo days after the troops were re- 
embarked, Sir George Rooke, joined by Sir Cloudesly, called a 
council of war on board the fleet, as they lay off the coast of 
Africa. In this they resolved to make an attempt upon Gib 
raltar, a city then belonging to the Spaniards, at that time ill 
provided with a garrison, as neither expecting nor fearing such 
an attempt. 

The town of Gibraltar stands upon a tongue of land, as the 
mariners call it, and defended by a rock inaccessible on every 
side but one. The prince of Hesse landed his troops, to the 
number of eight hundred, on the continent adjoining, and sum- 
moned the town to surrender, but without effect. Next day 
the admiral gave orders for cannonading the town ; and, per- 
ceiving that the enemy were driven from their fortifications at 
a place called the South Mole Head, ordered Captain Whitaker 
to arm all the boats and assault that quarter. Those officers 



ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE OF ENGLAND. 349 

■who happened to be nearest the mole immediately manned their 
boats without orders, and entered the fortifications sword in 
hand. But they were premature ; for the Spaniards sprung a 
mine, by which two lieutenants and about one hundred men 
were killed or wounded. Nevertheless, the two captains, Hicks 
and Jumper, took possession of a platform, and kept their 
ground until they were sustained by Captain Whitaker and the 
rest of the seamen, who took a redoubt between the mole and 
the town by storm. Then the governor capitulated, and the 
prince of Hesse entered the place, amazed at the success of the 
attempt, considering the strength of the fortifications. When 
the news of this conquest was brought to England, it was for 
some time in debate whether it was a capture worth thanking 
the admiral for. It was at last considered as unworthy public 
gratitude ; and, while the duke of Marlborough was extolled for 
useless services. Sir George Rooke was left to neglect, and soon 
displaced from his command for having so essentially served his 
country. A striking instance, that, even in the most enlight- 
ened age, popular applause is most usually misplaced. Gibral- 
tar has ever since remained in the possession of the English, 
and continues of the utmost use in refitting that part of the 
navy destined to annoy an enemy, or protect their trade in the 
Mediterranean. Here the English have a repository capable 
of containing all thing necessary foEjthe repairing of fleets or 
the equipment of armies. 

While the English were thus victorious by land and sea, a 
new scene of contention was opened on the side of Spain, where 
the ambition of the European princes exerted itself with the 
same fury that had filled the rest of the continent. Philip the 
Fourth, grandson of Louis the Fourteenth, had been placed 
upon the throne of that kingdom, and had been received with 
the joyful concurrence of the greatest part of his subjects. He 
had also been nominated successor to the crown by the late king 
of Spain's will. But, in a former treaty among the powers of 
Europe, Charles, son of the emperor of Germany, was ap- 
pointed heir to that crown ; and this treaty had been guaran- 
tied by France herself, though she now resolved to reverse that 
consent in favour of a descendant of the house of Bourbon. 
Charles was still farther led on to put in for the crown of Spain 
by the invitations of the Catalonians, who declared in his fa- 

2E 



350 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



vour, and by the assistance of the English and the Portuguese, 
who promised to arm in his cause. He was furnished with two 
hundi-ed transports, thirty ships of war, and nine thousand 
men, for the conquest of that extensive empire. But the earl 
of Peterborough, a man of romantic bravery, offered to conduct 
them ; and his single service was thought equivalent to armies. 
The earl of Peterborough was one of the most singular and 
extraordinary men of the age in which he lived. When yet 
but fifteen, he fought against the Moors in Africa ; at twenty 
he assisted in compassing the revolution, and he now carried 
on the war in Spain almost at his own expense ; his friendship 
for the duke Charles being one of his chief motives to this 
great undertaking. He was deformed in his person ; but of a 
mind the most generous, honourable, and active. His first at- 
tempt upon landing in Spain was the taking of Barcelona, a 
strong city, with a garrison of five thousand men, while the 
whole army amounted to little more than nine thousand. The 
prince of Hesse was killed in this action. 




DEATH OF THE PBINOE OF HESSB AT BABOELONA. 

These successes, however, were but of short continuance; 
Peterborough being recalled, and the army under Charles being 
commanded by the lord Galway. This nobleman, having re- 
ceived intelligence that the enemy, under the command of the 
duke of Berwick, was posted near the town of Almanza, he 
advanced thither to give him battle. The conflict began about 



ACCESSION OF QUEEN ANNE OF ENGLAND. 



351 



two in tlie afternoon, and the whole front of each army was 
fully engaged. The centre, consisting chiefly of battalions from 
Great Britain and Holland, seemed at first victorious ; but the 
Portuguese horse, by whom they were supported, betaking 
themselves to flight in the first charge, the English troops were 
flanked and surrounded on every side. In this dreadful emer- 
gency they formed themselves into a square, and retired to an 
eminence, where, being ignorant of the country and destitute 
of all supplies, they were obliged to surrender prisoners of war 
to the number of ten thousand men. This victory was com- 
plete and decisive ; and all Spain, except the province of Cata- 
lonia, returned to their duty to Philip, their sovereign. 




352 



INCIDENTS OP MODERN HISTORY. 




EXPLOITS OF THE BUCCANEERS. 




IFTER the failure of the mines of His- 
paniola, which were never rich, and the 
conquest of the two extensive empires 
of Mexico and Peru, where the pre- 
cious metals were found in the greatest 
profusion, that valuable island was en- 
tirely neglected by the Spaniards. The 
greater part of its once flourishing 
cities were deserted by their inhabitants, and the few planters 
that remained sunk into the most enervating indolence. The 
necessaries, however, and even many of the luxuries of life 
were there found in abundance. All the European animals had 
multiplied exceedingly, but especially the horned cattle, which 



EXPLOITS OF THE BUCCANEERS. 353 

■were become in a manner wild, and wandered about in large 
droves, without any regular owner. Allured by these conve- 
niences, certain French and English adventurers, since known 
by the name of Buccaneers or freebooters, had taken posses- 
sion of the small island of Tortuga, as early as the year 1632, 
and found little diflBculty, under such favourable circumstances, 
of establishing themselves on the northern coast of Hispaniola. 
They at first subsisted chiefly by the hunting of wild cattle. 
Part of the beef they ate fresh, part they dried, and the hides 
they sold to the masters of such vessels as came upon the coast, 
and who furnished them in return with clothes, liquors, fire- 
arms, powder, and shot. But the wild cattle at length becom- 
ing scarce, the buccaneers were under the necessity of turning 
their industry to other objects. The sober-minded men applied 
themselves to the cultivation of the ground, which abundantly 
requited their toil, while those of a bold and restless disposition 
associated themselves with pirates and outlaws of all nations, 
and formed the most terrible band of ravagers that ever infested 
the ocean. To these ravagers, however, rendered famous by 
their courage and their crimes, France and England are in- 
debted, in some measure, for the prosperity of their settlements 
in the West Indies. 

Nothing could appear less formidable than the first arma- 
ments of the piratical buccaneers, wh^ took the name of Bro- 
thers of the Coast. Having formed 'niemselves, like the hunt- 
ers of wild cattle, into small societies, they made their excur- 
sions in an open boat, which generally contained between 
twenty and thirty men, exposed to all the intemperature of 
the climate, to the burning heat of the day, and the chilling 
damps of the night. The natural inconveniencies connected 
with this mode of life were augmented by those arising from 
their licentious disposition. 

A love of freedom, which, duly regulated, cannot be- too 
much cherished, rendered the buccaneers averse against all 
those restraints which civilized men usually impose on each 
other for their common happiness ; and, as the authority which 
they had conferred on their captain was chiefly confined to giv- 
ing orders in battle, they lived in the greatest disorder. Like 
savages, having no apprehension of want, nor taking any care 
to guard against famine by prudent economy, they were fre- 
45 2 E 2 



354 INCIDENTS OP MODERN HISTORY. 

quently exposed to all the extremities of hunger and thirst 
But deriving, even from their distresses, a courage superior to 
every danger, the sight of a sail transported them to a degree 
of frenzy. They seldom deliberated on the mode of attack ; 
but their custom was to board the ships as soon as possible. 
The smallness of their own vessels, and their dexterity in ma- 
naging them, preserved them from the fire of the enemy. They 
presented only to the broadside of the ship their slender prows, 
filled with expert marksmen, who fired at the enemy's port- 
holes with such exactness as to confound the most experienced 
gunners. And when they could fix their grappling tackle, the 
largest trading vessels were generally obliged to strike. 

Although the buccaneers, when under the pressure of neces- 
sity, attacked the ships of every nation, those belonging to the 
subjects of Spain were more especially marked out as the ob- 
jects of their piracy. They thought that the cruelties which 
the Spaniards had exercised on the natives of the New World 
were a sufficient apology for any violence that could be com- 
mitted against them. Accommodating their conscience to this 
belief, which perhaps, unknown to themselves, was rather dic- 
tated by the richness of the Spanish vessels than by any real 
sense of religion or equity, they never embarked in an expedi- 
tion without publicly praying to heaven for its success ; nor 
did they ever return loaded with booty without solemnly re- 
turning thanks to God for their good fortune. 

This booty was originally carried to the island of Tortuga, 
the common rendezvous of the buccaneers, and then their only 
place of safety. But afterward the French went to some of 
the ports of Hispaniola, where they had established themselves 
in defiance of the Spaniards ; and the English to those of Ja- 
maica, where they could dispose of their prizes to more advan- 
tage, and lay out their money more agreeably, either in busi- 
ness or pleasure. 

Before the distribution of the spoil, each adventui'er held up 
his hand, and protested that he had secreted nothing of what 
he had taken; and if any one was convicted of perjury, a case 
that seldom occurred, he was punished in a manner truly exem- 
plary, and worthy the imitation of better men. He was ex- 
pelled the community, and left, as soon as an opportunity 



EXPLOITS OF THE BUCCANEERS. 355 

offered, upon some desert island, as a ■VYretch unworthy to live 
in society, even with the destroyers of their species ! 

After providing for the sick, the wounded, the maimed, and 
settling their several shares, the buccaneers indulged themselves 
in all kinds of licentiousness. Their debauches, which they 
carried to the greatest excess, were limited only by the want 
that such prodigality occasioned. If they were asked what 
satisfaction they could find in dissipating so rapidly what they 
had earned with so much jeopardy, they made this very inge- 
nious reply : — " Exposed, as we are, to a variety of perils, our 
life is totally different from that of other men. Why should we, 
who are alive to-day, and run the hazard of being dead to-mor- 
row, think of hoarding ! — Studious only of enjoying the present 
hour, we never think of that which is to come." This has ever 
been the language of men in such circumstances : the desire of 
dissipating life, not solicitude for the preservation of existence, 
seems to increase in proportion to the danger of losing it. 

The ships that sailed from Europe to America seldom tempted 
the avidity of the first buccaneers, as the merchandise they 
carried could not readily have been sold in the West Indies in 
those early times. But they eagerly watched the Spanish ves- 
sels on their return to Europe, when certain they were partly 
laden with treasure. They commonly followed the galleons and 
flota, employed in transporting the produce of the mines of 
Mexico and Peru, as far as the channel of Bahama ; and if, by 
any accident, a ship was separated from the fleet, they instantly 
beset her, and she seldom escaped them. They even ventured 
to attack several ships at once ; and the Spaniards, who consi- 
dered th^ as demons, and trembled at their approach, com- 
monly surrendered if they came to close quarters. 

A remarkable instance of this timidity on the one side, and 
temerity on the other, occurs in the history of Peter Legrand, 
a native of Dieppe in Normandy, who, with a small vessel, car- 
rying no more than twenty-eight men and four guns, had the 
boldness to attack the vice-admiral of the galleons. Resolved 
to conquer or die, and having exacted an oath to the same pur- 
pose from his crew, he ordered the carpenter to bore a hole in 
the side of his own vessel, that all hope of escape might be cut 
off. This was no sooner done than he boarded the Spanish 
ship, with a sword in one hand and a piste) in the other, and, 



356 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

bearing down all resistance, entered the great cabin, attended 
by a few of the most desperate of bis associates. He there 
found the admiral surrounded by his officers, presented a pistol 
to his breast, and ordered him to surrender. Meanwhile, the 
rest of the buccaneers took possession of the gun-room, and 
seized the arms. Struck with terror and amazement, the Spa- 
niards demanded quarter. Like examples are numerous in the 
history of the buccaneers. 

The Spaniards, almost reduced to despair, by finding them- 
selves a continual prey to those ravagers, diminished the num- 
ber of their ships, and the colonies gave up their connections 
with each other. These humiliating precautions, however, 
served but to increase the boldness of the buccaneers. They 
had hitherto invaded the Spanish settlements only to procure 
provisions ; but no sooner did they find their captures decrease, 
than they determined to procure by land that wealth which the 
sea denied them. They accordingly formed themselves into 
larger bodies, and plundered many of the richest and strongest 
towns in the New World. Maracaibo, Campeachy, Vera Cruz, 
Porto-Bello, and Carthagena, on this side of the continent, se- 
verely felt the efiects of their fury ; and Quayaquil, Panama, 
and many other places on the coast of the South Sea, were not 
more fortunate in their resistance, or treated with greater lenity. 
In a word, the buccaneers, the most extraordinary set of men 
that ever appeared upon the face of the globe, but whose 
duration was transitory, subjected to their arms, without a regu- 
lar system of government, without laws, without any permanent 
subordination, and even without revenue, cities and castles 
which have baffled the utmost efibrts of national force ; and if 
conquest, not plunder, had been their objects, they might have 
ma.de themselves masters of all Spanish America. 

Among the buccaneers who first acquired distinction in this 
new mode of plundering, was Montbars, a gentleman of Lan- 
guedoc. Having by chance, in his infancy, met with a circum- 
stantial, and perhaps exaggerated, account of the cruelties prac- 
tised by the Spaniards in the conquest of the New World, he 
conceived a strong antipathy against a nation that had commit- 
ted so many enormities. His heated imagination, which he 
loved to indulge, continually represented to him innumerable 
multitudes of innocent people, murdered by a brood of savage 



EXPLOITS OF THE BUCCANEERS. 357 

monsters nursed in the mountains of Castile. The unhappy 
, victims, whose names were ever present to his memory, seemed 
to call upon him for vengeance : he longed to imbrue his hands 
in Spanish blood, and to retaliate the cruelties of the Spaniards, 
on the same shores where they had been perpetrated. He ac- 
cordingly embarked on board a French ship bound to the West 
Indies, about the middle of the last century, and joined the 
buccaneers, whose natural ferocity he inflamed. Humanity in 
him became the source of the most unfeeling barbarity. The 
Spaniards suffered so much from his fury, that he acquired the 
name of the Exterminator. 

Michael de Baso and Francis Lolonois were also greatly re- 
nowned for their exploits, both by sea and land. Their most 
important, though not their most fortunate, enterprise, was that 
of the gulf of Venezuela, with eight vessels and six hundred 
and sixty associates. This gulf runs a considerable way up 
into the country, and communicates with the lake of Maracaibo 
by a narrow stiait. That strait is defended by a castle called 
■ la Barra, which the buccaneers took, and nailed up the cannon. 
(a. d. 1667.) They then passed the bar, and advanced to the 
city of Maracaibo, built on the western coast of the lake, at the 
distance of about ten leagues from its mouth. But, to their 
inexpressible disappointment, they found it utterly deserted and 
unfurnished ; the inhabitants, apprized of their danger, having 
removed to the other side of the lake with their most valuable 
effects. 

If the buccaneers had not spent a fortnight in riot and de- 
bauchery, they would have found at Gibraltar, a town near the 
extremity of the lake, every thing which the people of Mara- 
caibo had carried off, in order to elude their rapacity. On the 
contrary, by their imprudent delay, they met with fortifications 
newly erected, which they had the glory of reducing at the 
expense of much blood and the mortification of finding another 
empty town. Exasperated at this second disappointment, the 
buccaneers set fire to Gibraltar ; and Maracaibo would have 
shared the same fate had it not been ransomed. Besides the 
bribe they received for their lenity, they took with them the 
bells, images, and all the ornamental furniture of the churches, 
intending, as they said, to build a chapel in the island of Tor- 
tuga, and to consecrate that part of their spoils to sacred uses! 



358 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Like other plunderers of more exalted character, they had nc 
idea of the absurdity of offering to heaven the fruits of rob- 
bery and murder, procured in direct violation of its laws. 

But of all the buccaneers, French or English, none was so 
uniformly successful, or executed so many great and daring 
enterprises, as Henry Morgan, a native of the principality of 
JVales. While De Basco, Lolonois, and their companions, were 
squandering at Tortuga the spoils they had acquired in the gulf 
of Venezuela, Morgan sailed from Jamaica to attack Porto- 
Bello ; and his measures were so well concerted, that, soon after 
his landing, he surprised the sentinels, and made himself master 
of the town, before the Spaniards could put themselves in a 
posture of defence, (a. d. 1668.) 

In hopes of reducing with the same facility the citadel, or 
chief castle, into which the citizens had conveyed their most 
valuable property and all the plate belonging to the churches, 
Morgan bethought himself of an expedient that discovers his 
knowledge of national character, as well as of human nature 
in general. He compelled the priests, nuns, and other women 
whom he had made prisoners, to plant the scaling ladders 
against the walls of the fortress, from a persuasion that the 
gallantry and superstition of the Spaniards would not suffer 
them to fire on the objects of their love and veneration. But 
he found himself deceived in this flattering conjecture. The 
Spanish governor, who was a resolute soldier, used his utmost 
efforts to destroy every one that approached the works. Morgan 
and his English associates, however, carried the place by storm, 
in spite of all opposition, and found in it, besides a vast quan- 
tity of rich merchandise, bullion and specie equivalent to one 
hundred thousand pounds sterling. 

With this booty, Morgan and his crew returned to Jamaica, 
where he immediately planned a new enterprise. Understand- 
ing that De Basco and Lolonois had been disappointed in the 
promised plunder of Maracaibo by their imprudent delay, he 
resolved from emulation, no less than avidity, to surprise that 
place. With this view, he collected fifteen vessels, carrying 
nine hundred and sixty men. ' These ravagers entered the gulf 
of Venezuela unobserved, silenced the fort that defends this 
passage to the lake of Maracaibo, and found the town, as for- 
merly, totally deserted, (a. d. 1669.) But they were so fortu- 



EXPLOITS OF THE BUCCANEERS. 359 

nate as to discover the chief citizens, and the greater part of 
their wealth, in the neighbouring woods. Not satisfied, how- 
ever, with this booty, Morgan proceeded to Gibraltar, which 
he found in the same desolate condition ; and, while he 
was attempting, by the most horrid cruelties, to extort from 
such of the inhabitants as had been seized a discovery of their 
hidden treasures, he was informed of the arrival of three Spa- 
nish men-of-war at the entrance of the lake. 

At this intelligence, which was confirmed by a boat despatched 
to reconnoitre the enemy, the heart of the bravest buccaneer 
sank within him. But, although Morgan considered his condi- 
tion as desperate, his presence of mind did not forsake him. 
Concealing his apprehensions, he sent a letter to Don Alonzo 
del Campo, the Spanish admiral, boldly demanding a ransom 
for the city of Maracaibo. The admiral's answer was resolute, 
and excluded all hope of working upon his fears. " I am 
come," said he, " to dispute your passage out of the lake, and 
I have the means of doing it. Nevertheless, if you will submit 
to surrender, with humility, all the booty and prisoners you 
have taken, I will sufier you to pass, and permit you to return 
to your own country without trouble or molestation. But if 
you reject this ofi"er, or hesitate to comply, I will order boats 
from Caracas, in which I will embark my troops, and, sailing 
to Maracaibo, will put every man of you to the sword. This 
is my final determination. Be prudent, therefore, and do not 
abuse my bounty by an ungrateful return. I have with me," 
added he, " very good troops, who desire nothing more ardently 
than to revenge on you and your people all the cruelties and 
depredations which you have committed upon the Spanish 
nation in America." 

The moment Morgan received this letter, he called together 
his followers ; and, after acquainting them with its contents, 
desired them to deliberate whether they would give up all their 
plunder, in order to secure their liberty, or fight for it ? They 
unanimously answered, that they would rather lose the last drop 
of their blood than resign a booty which had been purchased 
with so much peril. Morgan, however, sensible of his danger- 
ous situation, endeavoured to compromise the matter, but in 
vain. The Spanish admiral continued to insist on his fii'st con 
ditions. When Morgan was made acquainted with this inflexi 



360 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

bility, he coolly replied : " If Don Alonzo "will not allow me to 
pass, I will find means to pass without his permission." He 
accordingly made a division of the spoil, that each man might 
have his own property to defend ; and, having filled a vessel, 
which he had taken from the enemy, with preparations of gun- 
powder and other combustible materials, he gallantly proceeded 
to the mouth of the lake ; burnt two of the Spanish ships, took 
one, and, by making a feint of disembarking men, in order to 
attack the fort by land, he diverted the attention of the garri- 
son to that side, while he passed the bar with his whole fleet on 
the other without receiving any damage. 

The success of Morgan, like that of all ambitious leaders, 
served only to stimulate him to yet greater undertakings. 
Having disposed of his booty at Port-Royal in Jamaica, he 
again put to sea with a larger fleet and a more numerous body 
of adventurers, (a. d. 1670 ;) and after reducing the island of 
St. Catharine, where he procured a supply of naval and mili- 
tary stores, he steered for the river Chagres, the only channel 
that could conduct him to Panama, the grand object of his 
armament. At the mouth of this river stood a strong castle, 
built upon a rock, and defended by a good garrison, which 
threatened to baffle all the efforts of the buccaneers, when an 
arrow, shot from the bow of an Indian, lodged in the eye of 
one of those resolute men. With wonderful firmness and pre- 
sence of mind, h.e pulled the arrow from the wound, and, wrap- 
ping one of its ends in tow, put it into his musket, which was 
already loaded, and discharged it into the fort, where the roofs 
of the houses were of straw, and the sides of wood, conforma- 
ble to the custom of building in that country. The burning 
arrow fell on the roof of one of the houses, which immediately 
took fire — a circumstance that threw the Spaniards into the 
utinost consternation, as they were afraid every moment of 
perishing by the rapid approach of the flames, or the blowing 
up of the powder-magazine. After the death of the governor, 
who bravely perished with his sword in his hand, at the head 
of a few determined men, the place surrendered to the assail- 
ants. 

This chief obstacle being removed, Morgan and his associates, 
leaving the larger vessels under guard, sailed up the Chagres in 
boats to Cruces, and thence proceeded by land to Panama. On 



EXPLOITS OF THE BUCCANEERS. ' b61 

the savanna, a spacious plain before the city, the Spaniards made 
several attempts to repulse the ferocious invaders, but without 
effect. The buccaneers gained a decided superiority in every 
encounter. Foreseeing the overthrow of their military pro- 
tectors, the unarmed inhabitants sought refuge in the woods ; 
so that Morgan took quiet possession of Panama, and delibe- 
rately pillaged it for some days. 

But Morgan met at Panama with what he valued no less than 
his rich booty. A fair captive inflamed his savage heart with 
love ; and, finding all his solicitations ineffectual, as neither his 
person nor character was calculated to inspire the object of his 
passion with favourable sentiments toward him, he resolved to 
second his assiduities with a seasonable mixture of force. 
" Stop, ruffian !" cried she, as she wildly sprung from his arms; 
" stop ! thinkest thou that thou canst ravish from me mine 
honour as thou hast wrested from me my fortune and my liber- 
ty ? No ! be assured that my soul phall sooner be separated 
from this body:" and she drew a poniard from her bosom, 
which she would have plunged into his heart, if he had not 
avoided the blow. 

Enraged at such a return for his fondness, Morgan threw this 
virtuous beauty into a loathsome dungeon, and endeavoured to 
break her spirit by severities. But his followers becoming cla- 
morous at being kept so long in a state of inactivity by a ca- 
price which they could not comprehend, he was obliged to listen 
to their importunities and give up his amorous pursuit. As a 
prelude to their return, the booty was divided ; and Morgan's 
own share, in the pillage of this expedition, is said to have 
amounted to one hundred thousand pounds sterling. He car- 
ried all his wealth to Jamaica, and never afterwards engaged 
in any piratical enterprise. 

The defection of Morgan, and several other principal leaders, 
who sought and found an asylum in the bosom of that civil 
society whose laws they had so atrociously violated, together 
with the total separation of the English and French bucca- 
neers, in consequence of the war between the two nations 
which followed the revolution in 1688, broke the force of those 
powerful plunderers. The king of Spain being then in alliance 
with England, she repressed the piracies of her subjects in the 
West Indies, (a. d. 1690.) The French buccaneers continued 
46 2F 



362 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



their depredations, and with no small success, till the peace of 
Ryswick in 1697; when all differences between France and 
Spain having been adjusted, a stop was everywhere put to hos- 
tilities, and not only the association, but the very name of this 
extraordinary set of men soon became extinct. They were in- 
sensibly lost among the other European inhabitants of the "West 
Indies. 




ACCESSION OF GEORGE I. OF ENGLAND. 



363 



ACCESSION OF GEORGE I. OF ENGLAND. 




NNE died August 1, 1714, and George, 
elector of Hanover, was immediately 
proclaimed. He arrived in England, 
September 16, and was met at Green- 
wich, where he landed, by many per- 
sons of high oflSce and rank. Among 
these was the duke of Marlborough, 
who had lately returned to England, 
and whom, both at this time and ever 
after, the king treated with great dis- 
tinction. George, at his accession, was in the fifty-fifth year of 
his age. 

George was a man of plain, steady understanding, grave in 
his manner, and simple in his habits, and had the reputation of 
being a sagacious politician. He spoke English very imper- 
fectly, and was too much of a German in all his notions and 
habits to be very popular in England. 

George I. had one son and a daughter. The son had married 
Caroline, daughter of the margravine of Anspach, and at the 
time of his father's coming to the throne had three young 
daughters. He was created prince of Wales, and came with his 
family to England; as did also one of the king's brothers, the 
bishop of Osnaburg, who was created duke of York. 

The spirit of party still ran very high in England, (a. d. 
1715.) The king showed a decided preference for the Whigs. 
At this the Tories were much exasperated, and they soon began 
to show a spirit of disafi"ection to the house of Hanover. Lord 
Oxford, the great Tory leader, was sent to the Tower, where he 
remained two years ; but the two houses of parliament disagreed 
so violently as to the proceedings to be taken in regard to him, 
that he was at last acquitted without a trial. The duke of Or- 
mond and Lord Bolingbroke were impeached, but escap'^*^ ■•■"• 



364 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

France. They were then attainted, and their names wero erased 
from the list of English peers. 

These severities towards the leaders of the Tories excited 
great murmurs; and the Jacobites, who had been very active 
ever since the queen's death, made a strong party in Scotland. 
The earl of Mar proclaimed Prince James Stuart, September 6, 
1715, and set up his standard. James, however, was not then 
in a condition to come and take the crown that was proffered him. 

Louis XIV., who had given the Pretender a small supply of 
arms and ammunition, with the promise of more, died on the 
first of September this year, and the duke of Orleans, who was 
regent of France during the minority of Louis XV., (the infant 
great-grandson of the late king,) was not a friend to the Pre- 
tender's cause. 

The earl of Mar, nevertheless, continued in arms, and at 
length assembled a body of ten thousand men, which was farther 
increased by some English Jacobites. On the other hand, the 
duke of Argyle, who was appointed commander of the king's 
forces in Scotland, advanced against the rebels at the head of 
his own clans, assisted by some troops from Ireland. 

In the mean time the Pretender's party in the north of Eng- 
land organized themselves in battle array ; but they were en- 
countered by the militia and other troops sent against them, and 
were punished for their attempt. Some were hanged at Tyburn ; 
twenty-two persons were executed in Lancashire, and about one 
thousand were sent to the North American colonies. 

On December 22, the Pretender, after having been long ex- 
pected, at last arrived in Scotland. He came attended only by 
six gentlemen. The earl of Mar soon joined him, and he was 
proclaimed king ; and in the expectation that all Scotland would 
rise in his cause as one man, he fixed January 16, 1716, for his 
coronation at Scone. But before that day arrived, he was so 
closely pursued by the duke of Argyle, that he was glad to 
abandon his rash enterprise, and to get back again to France. 

The attention of the nation was chiefly occupied by a scheme 
called the South Sea Scheme, (a. d. 1720.) It was principally 
contrived by Sir John Blunt, a busy, speculating man; and the 
object of it was to enable a company of merchants, called the 
South Sea Company, to buy up all the national debts and con- 
centrate them into one fund. 




EISINO OP THE HIGHLANDERS IN 1715. 



ACCESSION OF GEORGE I. OF ENGLAND. 



36^ 



Many persons, in the expectation of receiving a high interest, 
advanced large sums of money towards this purchase ; but in a 
few months the whole was discovered to be a fraudulent scheme. 
The principal actors in it were punished by parliament, and 
measures were adopted to give some redress to the injured par- 
ties ; but a very large number of the imprudent speculators suf- 
fered severely. 

The king, who was much attached to Hanover, (a. d. 1727,) 
and had visited it several times, set out with the intention of 
going there once more. He had got as far as Delden, a small 
town near the frontiers of Germany, when he was taken ex- 
tremely ill. He had set his mind on reaching his brother's 
palace at Osnaburg, and ordered his people to hasten forwards. 
But he did not live to get there. It was found, when the car- 
riage stopped at the gate of the palace, that he had already 
breathed his last. He died June 11, 1727, in the sixty-eighth 
year of his age, and the thirteenth of his reign. 




OEATH OF COLONEL GAHDINBE AT PRESTON PAKB. 



368 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



ACCESSION OF GEORGE II.— REBELLION 
OF 1745. 





HE news of the sudden death 
of George I. reached London 
June 14, and George II. was 
proclaimed the next day. He 
was in the forty-fifth year of 
his age. His abilities were inferior to 
l!^ those of his father, and his temper hasty. 
i.si>;f«'^'~-'WH, He was simple in all his tastes and ha- 
bits, and singularly methodical. His 
strongest feeling, and that which more than any other governed 
his conduct, was his preference of Hanover to England. 

Queen Caroline united brilliant beauty to a strong under- 
standing and great goodness of heart. When George 11. came 
to the throne, he had two sons ; Frederick, the eldest, was 
twenty years old; William, afterwards duke of Cumberland, 
was only six years old. He had also four daughters. 

The prince of Wales married the princess of Saxe-Gotha. 
(a. d. 1736.) In 1737 the queen died, and the king's grief for 
her loss was sincere and excessive. In the same year a war 
broke out between England and Spain ; and Admiral Vernon 
took Porto-Bello, a Spanish settlement on the isthmus of Darien. 
About this time the peace of the continent was disturbed by 
a contest for the imperial throne, (a. d. 1743.) The emperor 
Charles VI. died, leaving an only daughter, Maria Theresa, 
married to prince Francis of Lorraine. The claim of Maria 
Theresa was disputed by the elector of Bavaria ; and nearly all 
Europe entered into the quarrel. The king of France took the 
part of the elector of Bavaria. 

The king of England engaged on the side of Maria Theresa, 
and sent to the continent an army of 16,000 men, under Lord 
Stair, which was afterwards increased by an equal number of 



ACCESSION OF GEORGE II.— REBELLION OF 1745. 369 

Hanoverians. In the cause of Maria Theresa, the king and his 
son, the duke of Cumberland, displayed considerable military 
talent ; but England, in the mean time, was suffering by the pro- 
jects of the Pretender. 

In the beginning of 1744, an invasion of England had been 
attempted by a French force of 15,000 men, under the convoy 
of twenty ships of the line. James himself, not having sufficient 
activity to engage personally in this expedition, deputed prince 
Charles Edward, his eldest son, to join in it. But though this 
expedition was rendered abortive. Prince Charles ventured in 
the following year to try his fortune in the northern part of the 
island. 

Having procured a sum of money, and a small supply of arms, 
on his own credit. Prince Charles sent to inform his friends in 
Scotland that he hoped soon to be with them. In June, 1745, 
he embarked with a few Scotch and Irish gentlemen in a small 
frigate ; but the vessel which carried a supply of arms for the 
expedition was disabled in the passage. Meanwhile the frigate 
pursued her destined course. On the 16th of July, Charles 
landed at Borodale, in Loehaber, and was soon joined by a con- 
siderable number of Highlanders. 

A moment more favourable for this enterprise could not have 
been chosen. The king of England was in Hanover ; the duke 
of Cumberland, with the most serviceable part of the army, was 
in Flanders ; and the ministers and parliament were divided by 
political disputes ; but Charles could not make the most of these 
advantages ; his want of arms, and the loss of the officers who were 
to have come, but were prevented, disabling him from making 
any attack on the strong English garrisons, which were in the 
heart of the country, at Fort William and Fort Augustus. 

The news of the Pretender's arrival in Scotland threw all 
England into commotion. The lords regent, to whom the con- 
duct of affairs had been left during the king's absence, sent to 
hasten his return ; and in the mean time issued a proclamation, 
offering a reward of 30,000Z. to any one who would seize Charles 
Stuart. Charles, in retaliation, set the same price on the head 
of the elector of Hanover. 

The prince, advancing to Perth, proclaimed his father king. 
His army still kept gathering numbers ; and, September 16, 
he took possession of the town of Edinburgh. The castle, how- 
47 



370 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

ever, still held out. General Guest, an experienced oflBcer, com- 
manded there ; and, having a strong garrison, vras determined to 
stand a siege. 

Sir John Cope, meanwhile, who commanded the king's forcea 
in Scotland, approached Edinburgh with all the troops he could 
muster ; and, September 20th, he encamped about nine miles 
from the town, at Prestonpans. The next morning Charles 
marched to meet him ; and the half-armed Highlanders attacked 
the king's troops with so much fury that the cavalry fled with 
precipitation. The total defeat of the infantry soon followed. 
They fled, leaving on the field all their baggage, and, what the 
prince wanted most of all, their arms, ammunition, and a train 
of field artillery. In this action Colonel Gardiner was killed. 

By this victory the rebels acquired possession of a consider- 
able part of Scotland. The castle of Edinburgh still held out, 
and was blockaded by the rebels. Charles, however, at the 
earnest entreaty of the inhabitants, whom General Guest had 
alarmed by the threat of destroying the town, and indeed by 
actually beginning to fire on it, raised the hlochade ; that is, 
he ceased the attempt to take the castle — he withdrew his 
troops. 

The popularity at this time of the Pretender's cause was 
greatly increased by the good conduct of the prince himself, 
who showed himself both vigorous in action and prudent in 
council, and bore his success with moderation. The king of 
France, seeing that his affairs were prosperous, sent him a sup- 
ply of small arms, cannon, and of&cers, and promised him that a 
large body of French should be landed in the south of England. 

On this assurance Charles passed the borders of Scotland. 
He entered Carlisle, November 6th. Leaving a garrison there, 
he marched onwards ; and on November 29th fixed his head- 
quarters at Manchester. He was there joined by about two 
hundred English Jacobites, and then proceeded to Derby. 

The rebel army was now within four days' march of London. 
Indescribable alarm and consternation prevailed in that city. 
Those who were in London fled into the country, while those in 
the country flew to London, every person thinking the place he 
was in the place of danger. The king, who had returned from 
Germany on the first summons, was all activity, and intended to 
have taken the field in person. 



ACCESSION OF GEORGE IL— REBELLION OF 1745. 373 

Prince Charles's army was sometimes successful ; but a final 
battle between his adherents and the English army took place 
at CuUoden, in Scotland, April, 1746. 

The fatal action of Culloden over, Charles, seeing that all was 
lost, rode off the field with a few followers. These he soon dis- 
missed, and led a wandering life for nearly five months, con- 
cealing himself in different parts of the Highlands, and owing 
his preservation to the fidelity of the poor inhabitants, who could 
not be tempted to betray him by the great reward which was 
offered for his apprehension, and who concealed him in their 
huts and caves, at the risk of their own lives. 

At last Charles, with a few faithful friends, found means to 
get on board a French privateer. Under the shelter of a thick 
fog he passed through the midst of a British squadron ; and at 
last, after many difficulties and dangers, landed safely at Mor- 
laix, in Bretagne ; but so worn out by the fatigues and hardships 
he had undergone, that he was scarcely to be known as the 
same handsome, sprightly youth, who had left France full of ani- 
mation and hope the year before. 

Frightful scenes followed in Scotland after the decisive victory 
at Culloden. It is deeply afflicting that the reputation of a 
brave man should be sullied by such dreadful cruelties as must 
ever stain the memory of the duke of Cumberland, who com- 
manded the king's forces. It is said that, in a district of nearly 
fifty miles round Lochiel, there was, in the course of a few days, 
neither house nor cottage, neither men nor cattle to be seen ; so 
complete was the ruin, silence, and desolation. 

The jails in England were filled with rebels, whose trials now 
followed. Many were executed — many were transported to the 
plantations in America, and some few were pardoned. Lords 
Balmerino, Kilmarnock, Derwentwater, and Lovat, and Mr. 
Ratcliffe, who were among the principal persons concerned in 
the rebellion, were conveyed to London and executed. 

The rebellion being subdued, the duke of Cumberland returned 
to the allied army in Flanders, where the war continued a short 
time longer. At length a general peace was signed at Aix-la- 
Chapelle, October 7th, 1748. 



2G 



;74 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




MONUMENT EBEOTED IN MEMORY OF THE PRISONERS WHO BIED IN THE BLACK- 
HOLE, CALCUTTA. 



FALL OF CALCUTTA, AND DEATH OF THE 
PRISONERS IN THE BLACK-HOLE. 




N the death of the nabob, or, more 
properly, Subah Allaveady, who had 
governed with great ability for 
many years the provinces of Ben- 
gal, Behar, and Orixa, the supreme 
authority devolved, according to his 
destination, upon his grandson Su- 
rajah Dowlah, a weak and tyranni- 
cal prince, (a. d. 1756.) Equally 
timid, suspicious, and cruel, the 
new viceroy determined to take ven- 
;j;eance on all whom he feared, and to owe his secui'ity to the 
inability of any power within his jurisdiction to hurt him. The 



FALL OF CALCUTTA. 377 

English had particularly awakened his apprehensions by the 
taking of Gheria, a fortress deemed impregnable in Indostan, 
by their increasing strength in the Carnatic, and by the 
growth of their settlement at Calcutta. 

Other circumstances conspired to point the resentment of 
Surajah Dowlah immediately against the English factory in 
Bengal. He was informed, and not altogether without founda- 
tion, that the agents of the East India Company had abused 
their privilege of dustueks, by making them subservient not 
only to the importation of European and the exportation of 
India goods, but to the importation of commodities from other 
parts of Indostan, and even of the same province, to the great 
diminution of the public revenue, and in direct contradiction to 
the purpose for which they had been granted, the encourage- 
ment of foreign commerce. He therefore determined to get 
those passports recalled by the court of Delhi, or to deny the 
validity, and also to punish the abuse. And the governor and 
council of Calcutta, by refusing to deliver vtp to him a noble 
refugee, who had taken shelter with all his treasures within 
their presidency, farther confirmed him in his hostile resolution. 

Enraged at this refusal, though seemingly occasioned by mis- 
apprehension, the nabob, who had assembled an army of fifty 
thousand men, with an intention of striking a blow in a distant 
quarter, ordered it to march directly toward Calcutta, where 
the English, he was told, were building new fortifications. He 
himself headed his troops, and advanced with such rapidity 
that many of them died of fatigue. Sufficient force, however, 
remained for the accomplishment of his enterprise. After at- 
tempting in vain to oppose the enemy in the streets and ave- 
nues, the English inhabitants took refuge in Fort William, a 
place in itself by no means strong, and defended only by a small 
garrison. Conscious of his inability to hold out, Mr. Drake, 
the governor, called at two in the morning a council of war, 
(June 19,) to which all, except the common soldiers, were ad- 
mitted, and, after debating long whether they should imme- 
diately escape to the company's ships in the river, or defer their 
retreat until the following night, the council broke up, without 
coming to any positive determination. But, as the first pro- 
posal was not carried into execution, the second was generally 
understood to have been embraced. 

48 2g2 



378 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Meanwliile the besiegers vigorously pushed their attacks, and 
hoped every moment to carry the fort by storm. Filled with 
terror, and utterly unacquainted with military service, many 
of the company's servants, and even some members of the 
council, went off to the ships. A party of militia, it was ob- 
served, that had conducted the women on board the preceding 
night, did not return to the garrison. They who remained in 
it looked at one another with wild affright. The governor, who 
had hitherto discovered no want of courage, now panic-struck 
at the thought of falling into the hands of Surajah Dowlah, 
who had threatened to put him to death, hurried into a boat 
that lay at the wharf, without apprizing the garrison of his in- 
tention. The military commanding officer, and several other 
persons of distinction, pusillanimously followed his example, 
and accompanied him to one of the ships. 

The astonishment of the garrison at this desertion could only 
be equalled by their indignation. Nothing was heard for a time 
but execrations against the fugitives. At length, however, the 
tumultuous concourse proceeded to deliberation ; and Mr. 
Pearkes, the eldest member of the council left in the fort, hav- 
ing resigned his right of seniority to Mr. Holwell, that gentle- 
man was unanimously invested with the chief command. The 
number of militia and soldiery now remaining amounted only 
to one hundred and ninety men. The new commander, there- 
fore, having seen some boats return to the wharf, locked the 
gate leading to the river, in order to prevent future desertions. 

The same promptitude and spirit distinguished Mr. Holwell's 
^yhole conduct. But all his gallant efforts were found insuffi- 
cient to preserve the fort. Soon convinced of their weakness, 
and, conscious of their danger, the garrison threw out signals 
for the ships or boats to repair to the wharf. That rational 
hope of escape, however, failed them. One ship having struck 
on a sand-bank, not a single vessel of any kind offered after- 
ward to yield them a retreat. As a last resource, Mr. Holwell 
threw a letter from the ramparts, intimating a desire to capitu- 
late, (June 20 ;) many of the garrison having been killed since 
the departure of the governor, and more of the survivors 
thrown into a state of despondency. Encouraged by this indi- 
cation of weakness, the besiegers made a desperate but inef- 
fectual assault ; after which one of the nabob's officers ap- 




SUBAJAH DOWLAH AND HIS SONS. 



FALL OF CALCUTTA. . 381 

peared with a flag of truce. It was answered by another from 
the fort. A parley ensued ; but before any articles of capitu- 
lation could be settled, the troops of Surajah Dowlah forced 
open one of the gates, and made themselves masters of the 
place, though without putting any of the garrison to the sword. 

About an hour after the taking of Fort William, the nabob 
entered it, accompanied by his general, Meer Jaffier, and most 
of the great officers of his army. Having given directions for 
securing the company's treasure, he seated himself, with all 
the state of an Asiatic conqueror, in the principal apartment of 
the factory, and ordered Mr. Holwell to be brought before him. 
On the first appearance of that gentleman, Surajah Dowlah 
expressed violent resentment at the presumption of the Eng- 
lish, in daring to resist his power, and chagrin at the smallness 
of the sum found in the treasury. Softened, however, in the 
course of three conferences, he dismissed the English chief, as 
he thought proper to call him, with repeated assurances, on the 
word of a soldier, that he should suffer no harm. 

Notwithstanding those assurances, Mr. Holwell and his unfor- 
tunate companions (whom he found on his return surrounded 
by a strong guard) were forced into the common dungeon of 
the fort, usually called the black-hole, about eight o'clock in the 
evening; and in that dungeon, only eighteen feet square, were 
they condemned to pass the night in one of the hottest climates 
of the earth, and in the hottest season of that climate. They 
could receive no air but through two small grated windows, 
almost totally blocked up by a neighbouring building, whioh 
deprived them of the common benefit even of the sultry atmo- 
sphere. Their distress was inexpressible, in consequence of the 
heat and the pressure of their bodies, as soon as the door was 
shut. They attempted to force it open, but without effect. 
Rage succeeded disappointment. The keenest invectives were 
uttered, in order to provoke the guard to put an end to their 
wretched lives, by firing into the dungeon ; and, while some, 
in the agonies and torment of despair, were blaspheming their 
Creator with frantic execrations, others were imploring relief 
from heaven in wild and incoherent prayers. 

Mr. Holwell, who had taken his station at one of the win- 
dows, exhorted his fellow-sufferers to composure as the only 
means of surviving till morning. In the mean time, he ad 



382 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

dressed himself to an old jemautdar, an ofl&cer of the guard, 
who seemed to have some marks of humanity in his counte- 
nance, promising him a thousand rupees if he would separate 
them into different apartments. He retired to procure an 
order for that purpose, but returned in a few minutes, with a 
sorrowful face, and said it was impossible ! Misapprehending 
his meaning, Mr. Holwell proffered him a larger sum. He re- 
tired a second time, and again returned with the same woe-fore- 
boding look, while the prisoners rent the air with their cries to 
the guard to open the dungeon, and drank their own sweat to 
relieve their thirst. 

" Unhappy men !" said the jemautdar, "submit to necessity. 
The subah is asleep ! and what slave dares disturb his repose?" 
A stronger picture of despotism was never drawn, nor a deeper 
scene of human misery exhibited. 

All sentiments of friendship, compassion, or respect, were 
henceforth extinguished in the breasts of the devoted prisoners. 
No one would give way for the relief of another ; but every 
one employed his utmost strength to obtain a place near the win- 
dows, or to maintain that station. The feeble sunk never more 
to rise, and were trampled upon by their stronger companions. 
The havoc of death and the struggle for air continued until 
morning appeared ; when, the door being opened, of one hun- 
dred and forty-six persons thrust into the black-hole, twenty- 
three only were brought out alive. And Mr. Holwell, and 
two other of the survivors, were condemned to farther suffer- 
ings. They were sent prisoners to Muxadavad, the capital of 
the province, in hopes of extorting from them, by cruel usage, 
a confession of the factory's hidden treasures. Calcutta was 
pillaged, and Fort William secured by a garrison of three 
thousand men. The affairs of the English East India Com- 
pany seemed finally ruined in Bengal. 





COLONEL CLIVE. 



RECOVERY OF CALCUTTA. 385 




RECOVERY OF CALCUTTA— BRILLIANT SUC- 
CESS OF COLONEL CLIVE IN INDIA. 



[HEN Admiral Watson returned to the 
coast of Coromandel, after reducing the 
fortress of Gheria, the residence of the 
famous pirate Angria, he was informed of 
the loss of Calcutta, with all the horrid 
circumstances attending it, and resolved 
upon revenge. He accordingly took on board Mr. Clive, now 
advanced to the rank of colonel, with part of the English East 
India Company's troops at Madras, and sailed for the bay of 
Bengal. By a zealous co-operation of the sea and land forces, 
the forts of Buzbuzia and Tannah were speedily reduced. The 
town of Calcutta was recovered, and the English colours being 
once more hoisted on Fort William, Mr. Drake, and the mem- 
bers of the council, who had hitherto remained on board the 
ships in the river, were again put in possession of the govern- 
ment. 

Not satisfied with this success, the British commanders made 
themselves masters also of the large town of Hoogly, where 
the nabob had established his principal magazines. Enraged at 
so many losses, and dreading more, Surajah Dowlah assembled 
a great army and marched toward Calcutta, determined se- 
verely to chastise the audacity of the invaders, and even finally 
to expel every Englishman from the province of Bengal. But 
he met with so warm a salute from Colonel Clive, Captain 
Coote, and other gallant officers, at the head of the company's 
troops, reinforced with six hundred sailors from the fleet, as 
induced him to sue for peace, and agree to such, terms as the 
English commanders thought proper to dictate. He engaged 
to restore to the East India Company all their factories, goods, 
and money, which had been seized by his orders ; to reinstate 
49 2H 



386 ^ INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

them in all their former privileges ; and to allow them to ex 
tend their presidency over thirtj-eight neighbouring villages, 
conformable to a disputed grant that had been obtained from 
the great mogul. 

Informed of the new war between France and Great Britain, 
and having nothing now to fear from the nabob, the English 
commanders resolved to turn their arms against the French 
factories in Bengal. Their first object was the reduction of 
Chandernagore, the principal French settlement in the province, 
and a place of great strength, situated a little higher on the 
river Hoogly than Calcutta. In the expedition against this 
town and fort, Colonel Clive commanded seven hundred Euro- 
pean troops, and sixteen hundred sepoys, or soldiers of the 
country, habituated to the use of fire-arms. The squadron, 
consisting of three sail of the line and a sloop of war, was 
conducted by the admirals Watson and Pocock. The place was 
defended by six hundred Europeans and three hundred sepoys, 
who gallantly disputed every post. But so powerful was the 
cannonade from the ships, as soon as they could bring their 
guns to bear upon the works, and from two batteries, mounted 
with twenty-four pounders, that assailed with a cross-fire the 
two bastions of the fort against which the men-of-war laid their 
broadsides, that the garrison was obliged to surrender, after a 
short but vigorous conflict of three hours. 

As conquest naturally expands the views of the conqueror, 
Clive, who was formed for vast undertakings, no sooner 
found himself in possession of Chandernagore, than he con-, 
ceived the design of humbling still farther the nabob of Ben- 
gal, and of advancing to a yet greater height the interests 
of the English East India Company. And the conduct of 
that prince furnished him with many pretexts for renewing 
hostilities. 

Surajah Dowlah was backward in fulfilling the treaty he had 
lately concluded with the company. He attempted to evade 
the execution of the chief articles of it ; and he had entered 
into secret intrigues with the French, to whom he seemed dis- 
posed to afford protection in return for support. The English 
colonel, therefore, resolved to compel him to perform his stipu- 
lations, and, in case of refusal, to chastise him for his breach 
of faith, and even to divest him of his authority. In the last 



RECOVERY OF CALCUTTA. 387 

resolution he was confirmed (if it was not suggested) by a dis- 
covery of the dissatisfaction of Meer Jaffier, commander-in- 
chief of the nabob's forces, and of the intrigues of Surajah 
Dowlah with the French oflBcers in the Deccan. 

The measures employed by Clive to accomplish this revolu- 
tion do no less honour to his sagacity and address as a politi- 
cian than to his vigour and skill as a commander. While he 
conducted an intricate and dangerous negotiation with Meer 
Jaffier by means of his agents, he counterfeited friendship so 
artfully as not only to quiet the suspicions of the nabob, but 
to induce him to dissolve his army, which had been assembled 
at Plassy, a strong camp to the south of his capital, before the 
taking of Chandernagore, in consequence of a report that the 
English commander meant next to attack Muxadavad. "Why 
do you keep your forces in the field," said he, insidiously, 
" after so many marks of friendship and confidence ? They 
distress all the merchants, and prevent us from renewing our 
trade. The English cannot stay in Bengal without freedom of 
commerce. Do not reduce us to the necessity of suspecting that 
you intend to destroy us as soon as you have an opportunity." 

In order to quiet these pretended fears, Surajah Dowlah 
recalled his army, though not without great anxiety. "If," 
cried he, with keen emotion, "the colonel should deceive me!" 
And the secret departure of the English agents from Muxada- 
vad soon convinced him that he was deceived. He again as- 
sembled his army and ordered it to re-occupy its former camp 
at Plassy, after having made Meer Jaffier, by the most solemn 
oaths upon the Koran, renew his obligations of fidelity and 
allegiance. 

The English commander, who had hoped to take possession 
of that important post, was not a little disconcerted by this 
movement. The nabob had reached Plassy, twelve hours before 
him, at the head of fifty thousand foot and eighteen thousand 
horse. These forces were protected by fifty pieces of cannon, 
planted in the openings between the columns into which the 
Indian army was divided, and partly directed by forty French- 
men. Clive, however, though surprised at the enemy's num- 
bers, as well as at their formidable array, resolved to give them 
battle. He accordingly drew up his little army, consisting of 
about one thousand Europeans and two thousand sepoys, under 



588 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

cover of eight field-pieces. The cannonade was brisk on both 
sides, from eight o'clock in the morning till near noon, when a 
heavy shower damaged the enemy's powder, and their fire began 
gradually to flag. 

Nor was this the only circumstance in favour of the English 
army. Surajah Dowlah, who had hitherto remained in his tent 
beyond the reach of danger, and been flattered every moment 
with assurances of victory, was now informed that Meer Mur- 
deen, the only general on whose fidelity he could rely, was 
mortally wounded. Overwhelmed by so weighty a misfortune, 
he sent for Meer Jaffier, and throwing his turban on the ground, 
" Jafiier !" exclaimed he, " that turban you must defend." The 
traitor bowed, and, with his hand on his breast, promised his 
best services. But no sooner did he join his troops, than he 
sent a letter to Colonel Clive, acquainting him with what had 
passed, and requesting him either instantly to push on to victo- 
ry, or to storm the nabob's camp during the following night. 

The letter, however, was not delivered till the fortune of the 
day was decided ; so that Clive was still held in some degree 
of suspense with respect to the ultimate intentions of JaflBer. 
Meanwhile the nabob, understanding that his general continued 
inactive, suddenly ordered a retreat. Mounting a camel soon 
after, he fled toward Muxadavad, accompanied by two thousand 
horsemen. And the English army, having surmounted every 
difficulty, entered his camp about five in the afternoon, with- 
out any other obstruction than what was occasioned by bag- 
gage and stores — it being utterly abandoned by his troops, 
who were seen flying on all sides in the utmost confusion. 

Having at length received Meer Jaffier's letter, Clive pressed 
on with his victorious army to Daudpore, regardless of the rich 
plunder of the enemy's camp. He arrived there about eight 
o'clock in the evening, and the next morning saluted the trai- 
tor, nabob (though more properly Subah) of Bengal, Baher, 
and Orixa. 

The new nabob hastened with his troops to Muxadavad, 
whither he was followed by the English commander. From 
that city, Surajah Dowlah had made his escape in disguise, the 
day after his defeat, accompanied only by his favourite woman, 
and by the eunuch who governed his seraglio, having lost all 
confidence in his army and in his officers, both civil and mili- 



RECOVERY OF CALCUTTA. 389 

tary. He was taken, brought back to his capital, imprisoned, 
and put to death by order of Meerum, the son of Jaffier, an 
ambitious and cruel youth, who was unwilling to leave any thing 
in the power of fortune that violence could secure. Nor can 
his conduct be blamed on the maxims of Asiatic policy. His 
father's sway, which otherwise might have been disputed, was 
instantly acknowledged over all the three provinces that com- 
pose the viceroyalty of subahship. 

It now only remained for Colonel Clive to make Meer Jaffier, 
whom he had seated in the musnud or throne, fulfil the condi- 
tional engagements into which he had solemnly entered before 
the English army was put in motion for his support. After 
attempting some evasions, by pleading the lowness of his pre- 
decessor's treasury, the nabob found it necessary to adhere to 
every stipulation. And a treaty to the following purport was 
read, and acknowledged to have been signed by him. 

" I engage that, as soon as I shall be established in the go- 
vernment of Bengal, Behar, and Orixa, I will maintain the 
treaty of peace concluded with the English by Surajah Dow- 
lah ; that the enemies of the English shall be my enemies, whe- 
ther they be Indians or Europeans ; that all the effects and 
factories belonging to the French in Bengal, the paradise of 
nations, or in Behar and Orixa, shall remain in the possession 
of the English, and I will never more allow them to settle in 
any of the three provinces ; that, in consideration of the losses 
which the English company have sustained by the capture and 
plunder of Calcutta by the nabob, and the charges occasioned 
by maintaining forces to recover their factories, I will give one 
crore of rupees," equivalent to twelve hundred and fifty thou- 
sand pounds sterling; "and that, for the effects plundered from 
the English inhabitants of Calcutta, I will give fifty lacJcs of 
rupees," equivalent to six hundred and twenty-five thousand 
pounds sterling. He also agreed to indemnify the Armenian, 
Gentoo, and other Asiatic inhabitants of Calcutta, and greatly 
to enlarge the territory of the English East India Company. 
In a word, the indemnification and restitutions, with a donation 
of fifty lacks of rupees to the fleet and army, exclusive of 
private gratuities, amounted to the enormous sum of two mil- 
lions seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling. Near 
one-third of that sum was immediately paid in coined silver. 
• 2h2 



390 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




CONQUEST OF CANADA BY THE 
BRITISH. 

I HE war whicli broke out in 1755 opened in a 
manner most unfavourable to the British 
arms. General Braddock, who marched 
from New York against Canada, having neglected the precau- 
tions necessary in such a country, was completely surprised by a 
combined force of French and Indians. He himself being killed, 
only part of the army was saved by the skill and intrepidity of 
Colonel (afterwards General) Washington, who on that occasion 
distinguished himself for the first time. His troops, being after- 
wards joined to the provincial force under Generals Shirley and 
Johnson, repulsed near Lake George an attack made by a large 
body of the enemy under Baron Dieskau. Dieskau was mortally 
wounded in the action, and was found by some soldiers leaning 
against a tree when the action was over. Johnson, having ac- 



CONQUEST OF CANADA BY THE BRITISH. 



891 




DEATH OF BARON DIESKAU. 



quitted himself with great ability, and received several wounds, 
was rewarded with the honour of knighthood, and was long 
much esteemed in American warfare. But in the two following 
years, the enemy, headed by the gallant marquis de Montcalm, 
obtained a series of successes, terminating in the reduction of 
the important forts called Oswego and William Henry. This 
last triumph was stained with the barbarous murder, by the 
Indians, of fifteen hundred English prisoners ; which Montcalm, 
though it would seem unjustly, was accused of sanctioning. 
These disasters, joined to the failure of Byng at Minorca, and 
other abortive expeditions, deeply depressed the spirit of the 
nation, and seemed to sink their reputation in arms lower than 
at any former period. Yet the courage of the British lion was 
soon afterwards roused : the public voice called to the helm of 
affairs William Pitt, the greatest statesman then living, and who 
was destined to raise her name to a pitch of glory before un- 
rivalled. 

It was one of the main objects of Pitt's policy to obtain pos- 
session of the French territories in America, and to form them, 
together with the British colonies, into one vast range of domi- 
nion. He chose as his chief instrument Wolfe, a young man 



/ 



392 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




WILLIAM PUT, EAEL OF CHATHAM. 



without family or parliamentary interest, or even any esta- 
blished character as a commander. He had served only 
in subordinate situations ; yet the minister, with intuitive saga- 
city, saw in him the man best fitted to lead British troops to 
victory. In the expedition against Louisburg, in 1758, the 
most active though not the highest post was assigned to him, 
and through his exertions chiefly that main bulwark of French 
America fell. After the great name thus earned, there could 
no longer be any objection to investing him with the chief com- 
mand. 

In 1759, preparations were made on a great scale for the con- 
quest of Canada ; comprising twenty sail of the line, with smaller 
vessels and transports, having on board eight thousand veteran 
troops. These were placed under the direction of Wolfe, who 
was allowed the choice of all his oflBcers. After a prosperous 
voyage, the armament on the 26th June, arrived ofi" the Isle of 
Orleans. Quebec was defended by the marquis de Montcalm, 
having under his command thirteen thousand men, of whom 




WOLFE ASCENDING THE HEIGnTS OF ABKAHAM. 



CONQUEST OF CANADA BY TEE BRITISH. 



395 




indeed only two thousand were regular troops, the rest being 
Canadian militia with a few Indians. The attack having been 
long foreseen, full time was given him to intrench and strengthen 
his position. An attempt was first made to destroy the British 
fleet by fire-ships ; but these were caught with grappling irons, 
towed aside, and allowed to burn out without doing any 
injury. Brigadier-general Monckton then occupied Point Levi, 
opposite to the capital, which was thence bombarded with 
vigour ; but, though a number of houses were destroyed, the 
defences remained almost uninjured. The place therefore 
could only be carried by storming the intrenchments which the 
French had thrown up in front of it. This bold measure Wolfe 
resolved to adopt, and on the 31st July he efiiected a landing. 
The boats, however, had met with an accidental delay ; the 
grenadiers, it is said, rushed forward with too blind and impetu- 
ous a valour ; Montcalm, strongly posted between Quebec and 
Montmorenci, poured in upon them a destructive fire ; the 
Indian rifle told with fatal effect ; and the assailants were finally 
repulsed, with the loss of one hundred and eighty-two killed and 
six hundred and fifty wounded. 



396 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Wolfe felt this disappointment so deeply that his delicate 
frame was thrown into a violent fever ; and in a despatch to 
Mr. Pitt he afterwards expressed the apprehensions under which 
he laboui-ed. The fleet, his strongest arm, could not act against 
the wall of rock on which Quebec is seated ; and with his weak- 
ened force he had to storm fortified positions defended by troops 
more numerous than his own. As soon, however, as his health 
permitted, he called a council of war, desired the general offi- 
cers to consult together ; and, it is said, proposed to them a 
second attack on the French lines, avoiding the errors which had 
led to the failure of the first. They were decidedly of opinion 
that this was inexpedient ; but on the suggestion, as it is now be- 
lieved, of Brigadier-general Townsend, the second in command, 
they proposed to attempt a point on the other side of Quebec, 
where the enemy were yet unprepared, and whence they might 
gain the heights of Abraham which overlooked the city. Wolfe 
assented, and applied all his powers to the accomplishment of this 
plan. Such active demonstrations were made against Mont- 
calm's original position that he believed it still the main object ; 
and though he observed detachments moving up the river, merely 
sent De Bougainville with 2000 men to Cape Rouge, a position 
too distant, being nine miles above Quebec. On the night of 
the 12th of September, in deep silence, the troops were em- 
barked and conveyed in two divisions to the place now named 
Wolfe's Cove. The precipice here was so steep, that even the 
general for a moment doubted the possibility of scaling it ; but 
Fraser's Highlanders, grasping the bushes which grew on its 
face, soon reached the summit, and in a short time he had his 
whole army drawn up in regular order on the plains above. 
Montcalm, struck by this unexpected intelligence, at once con- 
cluded that, unless the English could be driven from this position, 
' Quebec was lost ; and, hoping probably that only a detachment 
had yet reached it, pushed forward at once to the attack. About 
fifteen hundred light infantry and Indians arrived first, and began 
a desultory fire from among the bushes ; but the British reserved 
their shot for the main body, which was seen advancing behind. 
They came forward in good order, and commenced a brisk at- 
tack ; yet no general fire was opened in return till they were 
within forty yards, when it could be followed up by the bayonet. 
The first volley was decisive ; Wolfe and Montcalm both fell 



m 




PEATH OF GENERAL WOLFE. 



CONQUEST OF CANADA BY THE BRITISH. 399 

almost at the same moment ; the French instantly gave way in 
every quarter ; and repeated charges, in which the Highland 
broadsword was powerfully wielded, soon completed the victory. 
As soon as Wolfe received his mortal wound, he said, « Support 
me ! let not my brave soldiers see me drop." He was carried 
to some distance in the rear, — and hearing the cry <« They run !" 
he asked « Who run ?" Being told " The enemy," he gave some 
short directions, and then said : " Now, God be praised, I die 
happy !" We cannot forbear quoting the simple and feeling 
observations of General Townsend respecting his heroic friend, 
whose fate threw so affecting a lustre on this memorable victory : 
" I am not ashamed to own to you, that my heart does not exult 
in the midst of this success. I have lost but a friend in General 
Wolfe ; our country has lost a sure support and a perpetual ho- 
nour. If the world were sensible at how dear a price we have 
purchased Quebec in his death, it woifld damp the public joy. 
Our best consolation is, that Providence seemed not to promise 
that he should remain long among us. He was himself sensible 
of the weakness of his constitution, and determined to crowd 
into a few years actions that would have adorned length of life." 

The battle had scarcely closed when De Bougainville appeared 
in the rear, but, on seeing the fortune of the day, immediately 
retreated. On the 17th a flag of truce came out, and on the 
18th a capitulation was concluded on honourable terms to the 
French, who were not made prisoners, but conveyed home to 
their native country. 

Canada was not yet conquered. General Amherst, indeed, 
marching from New York with a large force, had reduced the 
strong posts of Ticonderoga and Crown Point; while General 
Prideaux, aided by Sir William Johnson with a body of Indians, 
had taken Niagara. But the winter arrested their farther ad- 
vance ; and General De Levi, who had assembled at Montreal 
upwards of 10,000 men, conceived the design of recapturing 
Quebec in the spring, before it could obtain succours, either by 
sea or land. Being baffled in his projects to carry it by a coup 
de main, he landed his army on the 27th April, 1760, advanced 
to the heights of Abraham, and prepared to carry on a regular 
siege. General Murray had been left with a garrison of 6000 
men ; but a severe attack of scurvy had reduced to half that 
number those who were capable of bearing arms. This officer, 



iOU 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



fearing that the place was unfit to stand a siege, and hoping 
much from the bravery of his troops, attacked the enemy on the 
28th April, at Sillery; but, being overpowered by superior 
uumbers, he was defeated with great loss. If guilty here of any 
rashness, he atoned for it by the activity with which he placed 
Quebec in a state of defence, and held out the town till the 15th 
May, when a fleet, under Admiral Swanton, arrived and raised 
the siege. The French army then concentrated itself in Mon- 
treal, where the marquis De Vaudreuil made an attempt to 
maintain his ground ; but being enclosed by the forces under 
General Amherst, and by those from Quebec and Niagara, he 
found himself obliged, on the 8th September, 1760, to sign a 
capitulation, by which that city and the whole of Canada were 
transferred to British dominion. He obtained liberal stipulations 
for the good treatment of the inhabitants, and particularly the 
free exercise of the Catholic faith, and the preservation of the 
property belonging to the religious communities. He even de- 
manded that the bishop should continue to be appointed by the 
French monarch, but this was of course refused. The possession 
of Canada, as well as of all the adjoining countries, was confirmed 
to Britain by the peace of Paris, signed on the 10th February, 
1T63. 




THE FIRST SILESIAN WAR. 



403 




FRIDEBICE THB OBEAT. 



THE FIRST SILESIAN WAR. 




HE conduct of Frederick the Great in 
his attack upon Silesia is universally 
reprobated by historians. Being left 
by his father, at his decease, in posses- 
sion of a well-disciplined army, he 
trumped up some obsolete claims of 
the house of Brandenburg as a pre- 
text for what was, in fact, an unprin- 
cipled robbery. His prosecution of 
the war is thus characterized by Ma- 
caulay : — 

Without any declaration of war, 
without any demand for reparation, in the very act of pouring 
forth compliments and assurances of good-will, Frederick com 
menced hostilities. Many thousands of his troops were actually 
in Silesia before the queen of Hungary knew that he had set 
up any claim to any part of her territories. At length he sent 



404 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

her a message "vrliich could be regarded only as an insult. If 
she would but let him have Silesia, he would, he said, stand by 
her against any power which should try to deprive her of her 
other dominions ; as if he was not already bound to stand by her, 
or as if his new promise could be of more value than the old 



one 



It was the depth of winter. The cold was severe, and the 
roads deep in mire. But the Prussians passed on. Resistance 
was impossible. The Austrian army was then neither numerous 
nor eflficient. The small portion of that army which lay in Si- 
lesia was unprepared for hostilities. Glogau was blockaded ; 
Breslau opened its gates ; Ohlau was evacuated. A few scat- 
tered garrisons still held out ; but the whole open country was 
subjugated ; no enemy ventured to encounter the king in the 
field ; and, before the end of January, 1741, he returned to re- 
ceive the congratulations of his subjects at Berlin. 

Silesia had been occupied without a battle ; but the Austrian 
troops were advancing to the relief of the fortresses which still 
held out. In the spring Frederick rejoined his army. He had 
seen little of war, and had never commanded any great body of 
men in the field. It is not, therefore, strange that his first mili- 
tary operations showed little of that skill which, at a later pe- 
riod, was the admiration of Europe. What connoisseurs say of 
some pictures painted by Raphael in his youth, may be said of 
this campaign. It was in Frederick's early bad manner. For- 
tunately for him, the generals to whom he was opposed were 
men of small capacity. The discipline of his own troops, par- 
ticularly of the infantry, was unequalled in that age ; and some 
able and experienced officers were at hand to assist him with 
their advice. Of these, the most distinguished was Field-mar- 
shal Schwerin — a brave adventurer of Pomeranian extraction, 
who had served half the governments in Europe, had borne the 
commissions of the States- General of Holland and of the duke 
of Mecklenburg, and fought under Marlborough at Blenheim, 
and had been with Charles XII. at Bender. 

Frederick's first battle was fought at Molwit25 ; and never did 
the career of a great commander open in a more inaspicious 
manner. His army was victorious. Not only, however, did he 
not establish his title to the character of an able general, but 
he was so unfortunate as to make it doubtful whether he pos- 



THE FIRST SILESIAN WAR. 407 

sessed the vulgar courage of a soldier. The cavalry, which he 
commanded in person, was put to flight. Unaccustomed to the 
tumult and carnage of a field of battle, he lost his self-possession, 
and listened too readily to those who urged him to save himself. 
His English gray carried him many miles from the field, while 
Schwerin, though wounded in two places, manfully upheld the 
day. The skill of the old field-marshal and the steadiness of 
the Prussian battalions prevailed ; and the Austrian army was 
driven from the field with the loss of eight thousand men. 

The news was carried late at night to a mill in which the king 
had taken shelter. It gave him a bitter pang. He was suc- 
cessful ; but he owed his success to dispositions which others had 
made, and to the valour of men who had fought while he was 
flying. So unpromising was the first appearance of the greatest 
warrior of that age ! 

The battle of Molwitz was the signal for a general explosion 
throughout Europe. Bavaria took up arms. France, not yet 
declaring herself a principal in the war, took part in it as an 
ally of Bavaria. The two great statesmen to whom mankind 
had owed many years of tranquillity, disappeared about this time 
from the scene ; but not till they had both been guilty of the 
weakness of sacrificing their sense of justice and their love of 
peace in the vain hope of preserving their power. Fleury, sinking 
under age and infirmity, was borne down by the impetuosity of 
Belle-Isle. Walpole retired from the service of his ungrateful 
country to his woods and paintings at Houghton ; and his power 
devolved on the daring and eccentric Carteret. As were the 
ministers, so were the nations. Thirty years during which 
Europe had, with few interruptions, enjoyed repose, had pre- 
pared the public mind for great military efl"orts. A new gene- 
ration had grown up, which could not remember the siege of 
Turin or the slaughter of Malplaquet ; which knew war by no- 
thing but its trophies ; and which, while it looked with pride on 
the tapestries at Blenheim, or the statue in the " Place of Vic- 
tories," little thought by what privations, by what waste of pri- 
vate fortunes, by how many bitter tears, conquests must be pur- 
chased. 

For a time fortune seemed adverse to the queen of Hungary. 
Frederick invaded Moravia. The French and Bavarians pene- 
trated into Bohemia, and were there joined by the Saxons. 



408 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Prague was taken. The elector of Bavaria was raised by the 
suffrages of his colleagues to the Imperial throne — a throne 
which the practice of centuries had almost entitled the House 
of Austria to regard as an hereditary possession. 

Yet was the spirit of the haughty daughter of the Caesars un- 
broken. Hungary was still hers by an unquestionable title ; and 
although her ancestors had found Hungary the most mutinous 
of all their kingdoms, she resolved to trust herself to the fidelity 
of a people, rude indeed, turbulent, and impatient of oppression, 
but brave, generous, and simple-hearted. In the midst of dis- 
tress and peril she had given birth to a son, afterwards the Em- 
peror Joseph II. Scarcely had she risen from her couch, 
when she hastened to Presburg. There, in the sight of an in- 
numerable multitude, she was crowned with the crown, and 
robed with the robe of St. Stephen. No spectator could refrain 
his tears when the beautiful young mother, still weak from child- 
bearing, rode, after the fashion of her fathers, up the Mount of 
Defiance, unsheathed the ancient sword of state, shook it towards 
north and south, east and west, and, with a glow on her pale 
face, challenged the four corners of the world to dispute her 
rights and those of her boy. At the first sitting of the diet 
she appeared clad in deep mourning for her father, and in pa- 
thetic and dignified words implored her people to support her 
just cause. Magnates and deputies sprang up, half drew their 
sabres, and with eager voices vowed to stand by her with their 
lives and fortunes. Till then, her firmness had never once for- 
saken her before the public eye, but at that shout she sank down 
upon her throne, and wept aloud. Still more touching was the 
sight when, a few days later, she came before the estates of her 
realm, and held up before them the little archduke in her arms. 

Then it was that the enthusiasm of Hungary broke forth into 
that war-cry which soon resounded throughout Europe, " Let 
us die for our king, Maria Theresa !" 

In the mean time, Frederick was meditating a change of 
policy. He had no wish to raise France to supreme power on 
the continent, at the expense of the house of Hapsburg. His 
first object was, to rob the queen of Hungary. His second was, 
that, if possible, nobody should rob her but himself. He had 
entered into engagements with the powers leagued against 
Austria ; but these engagements were in his estimation of no 



THE FIRST SILESIAN WAR. 411 

more force than the guarantee formerly given to the " Prag- 
matic Sanction." His game now was to secure his share of the 
plunder by betraying his accomplices. Maria Theresa was little 
inclined to listen to any such compromise ; but the English go- 
vernment represented to her so strongly the necessity of buying 
off so formidable an enemy as Frederick, that she agreed to ne- 
gotiate. The negotiation would not, however, have ended in a 
treaty, had not the arms of Frederick been crowned with a 
second victory ; Prince Charles of Lorraine, brother-in-law to 
Maria Theresa, a bold and active, though unfortunate general, 
gave battle to the Prussians at Chotusitz, and was defeated. 
The king was still only a learner of the military art. He ac- 
knowledged, at a later period, that his success on this occasion 
was to be attributed, not at all to his own generalship, but 
solely to the valour and steadiness of his troops. He completely 
effaced, however, by his courage and energy, the stain which 
Molwitz had left on his reputation. 

A peace, concluded under the English mediation, was the 
* fruit of this battle. Maria Theresa ceded Silesia ; Frederick 
abandoned his allies; Saxony followed his example; and the 
queen was left at liberty to turn her whole force against France 
and Bavaria. She was everywhere triumphant. The French 
were compelled to evacuate Bohemia, and with difficulty effected 
their escape. The whole line of their retreat might be tracked 
by the corpses of thousands who had died of cold, fatigue, and 
hunger. Many of those who reached their country carried with 
them the seeds of death. Bavaria was overrun by bands of fe- 
rocious warriors from that bloody " debatable land," which lies 
on the frontier between Christendom and Islam. The terrible 
names of the Pandoor, the Croat, and the Hussar then first be- 
came familiar to western Europe. The unfortunate CharleS of 
Bavaria, vanquished by Austria, betrayed by Prussia, driven 
from his hereditary states, and neglected by his allies, was hur- 
ried by shame and remorse to an untimely end. An English 
army appeared in the heart of Germany, and defeated the 
French at Dettingen. The Austrian captains already began to 
talk of completing the work of Marlborough and Eugene, and 
of compelling France to relinquish Alsace and the three bishop- 
rics. 

The court of Versailles, in this peril, looked to Frederick for 



/ 



412 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

help. He had been guilty of two great treasons, perhaps he 
might be induced to commit a third. The duchess of Chateau- 
roux then held the chief influence over the feeble Louis. She 
determined to send an agent to Berlin, and Voltaire was selected 
for the mission. He eagerly undertook the task ; for, while his 
literary fame filled all Europe, he was troubled with a childish 
craving for political distinction. He was vain, and not without 
reason, of his address, and of his insinuating eloquence ; and he 
flattered himself that he possessed boundless influence over the 
king of Prussia. The truth was, that he knew, as yet, only one 
corner of Frederick's character. He was well acquainted with 
all the petty vanities and afiectations of the poetaster ; but was 
not aware that these foibles were united witb all the talents and 
vices which lead to success in active life ; and that the unlucky 
versifier who bored him with reams of middling Alexandrians, 
was the most vigilant, suspicious, and severe of politicians. 

Voltaire was received at the palace of Sans Souci with every 
mark of respect and friendship, was lodged in the palace, and 
had a seat daily at the royal table. The negotiation was of an 
extraordinary description. Nothing can be conceived more 
whimsical than the conferences which took place between the 
first literary man and the first practical man of the age, whom 
a strange weakness had induced to exchange their parts. The 
great poet would talk of nothing but treaties and guarantees, 
and the great king of nothing but metaphors and rhymes. On 
one occasion Voltaire put into his majesty's hand a paper on 
the state of Europe, and received it back with verses scrawled 
on the margin. In secret they both laughed at each other. 
Voltaire did not spare the king's poems ; and the king has left 
on record his opinion of Voltaire's diplomacy. "He had no 
credentials," says Frederick, <«and the whole mission was a 
joke, a mere farce." 




lEEDEBIOK IHB 



GREAT AND VOLTAIRE AT BANS S U C I. 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 415 




THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 

T was in the month of August, 1756, that the 
great war of the Seven Years commenced. 
The king demanded of the empress-queen a 
distinct explanation of her intentions, and 
plainly told her that he should consider a 
refusal as a declaration of war. " I want," 
he said, « no answer in the style of an ora- 
cle." He received an answer at once haughty 
and evasive. In an instant, the rich electorate of Saxony was 
overflowed by sixty thousand Prussian troops. • Augustus, with 
his army, occupied a strong position at Pirna. The queen of 
Poland was at Dresden. In a few days Pirna was blockaded 
and Dresden was taken. The object of Frederick was to obtain 
possession of the Saxon state papers ; for those papers, he well 
knew, contained ample proofs that though apparently an ag- 
gressor, he was really acting in self-defence. The queen of 
Poland, as well acquainted as Frederick with the importance of 
those documents, had packed them up, had concealed them in 
her bed-chamber, and was about to send them off to Warsaw, 
when a Prussian officer made his appearance. In the hope that 
no soldier would venture to outrage a lady, a queen, a daughter 
of an emperor, the mother-in-law of a dauphin, she placed her- 
self before the trunk, and at length sat down on it. But all 
resistance was vain. The papers were carried to Frederick, 
who found in them, as he expected, abundant evidence of the 
designs of the coalition. The most important documents were 
instantly published, and the effect of the publication was great. 
It was clear that, of whatever sins the king of Prussia might 
formerly have been guilty, he was now the injured party, and 
had merely anticipated a blow intended to destroy him. 

The Saxon camp at Pirna was in the mean time closely in- 
vested ; but the besieged were not without hopes of succour. A 



416 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

great Austrian army, under Marshal Brown, was about to pour 
through the passes which separate Bohemia from Saxony. 
Frederick left at Pirna a force sufficient to deal with the Saxons, 
hastened into Bohemia, encountered Brown at Lowositz, and 
defeated him. This battle decided the fate of Saxony. Au- 
gustus and his favourite, Buhl, fled to Poland. The whole 
army of the electorate capitulated. From that time till the 
end of the war, Frederick treated Saxony as a part of his do- 
minions, or, rather, he acted towards the Saxons in a manner 
which may serve to illustrate the whole meaning of that tre- 
mendous sentence — suhj'ectos tanquam suos, viles tanquam alie- 
nos. Saxony was as much in his power as Brandenburg ; and 
he had no such interest in the welfare of Saxony as he had in 
the welfare of Brandenburg. He accordingly levied troops and 
exacted contributions throughout the enslaved province, with 
far more rigour than in any part of his own dominions. Seven- 
teen thousand men, who had been in the camp of Pirna, were 
half compelled, half persuaded, to enlist under their conqueror. 
Thus, within a few weeks from the commencement of hostilities, 
one of the confederates had been disarmed, and his weapons 
pointed against the rest. 

The winter put a stop to military operations. All had 
hitherto gone well. But the real tug of war was still to come. 
It was easy to foresee that the year 1757 would be a memora- 
ble era in the history of Europe. 

The scheme for the campaign was simple, bold, and judi- 
cious. The duke of Cumberland, with an English Hanoverian 
army, was in Western Germany, and might be able to prevent 
the French troops from attacking Prussia. The Russians, con- 
fined by their snows, would probably not stir till the spring was 
far advanced. Saxony was prostrated. Sweden could do no- 
thing very important. During a few months, Frederick would 
have to deal with Austria alone. Even thus the odds were 
against him. But ability and courage have often triumphed 
against odds still more formidable. 

Early in 1757, the Prussian army in Saxony began to move. 
Through four defiles in the mountains they came pouring into 
Bohemia. Prague was his first mark ; but the ulterior object 
was probably Vienna. At Prague, lay Marshal Brown with 
one great army. Daun, the most cautious and fortunate of the 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 419 

Austrian captains, was advancing with another. Frederick 
determined to overwhelm Brown before Daun should arrive. 
On the sixth of May was fought, under those walls which, a 
hundred and thirty years before, had witnessed the victory of 
the Catholic league and the flight of the unhappy Palatine, a 
battle more bloody than any which Europe saw during the long 
interval between Malplaquet and Eylau. The king and Prince 
Ferdinand of Brunswick were distinguished on that day by 
their valour and exertions. But the chief glory was with 
Schwerin. When the Prussian infantry wavered, the stout old 
marshal snatched the colours from an ensign, and, waving them 
in the air, led back his regiment to the charge. Thus, at 
seventy-two years of age, he fell in the thickest battle, still 
grasping the standard which bears the black eagle on the field 
argent. The victory remained with the king ; but it had been 
dearly purchased. Whole columns of his bravest warriors had 
fallen. He admitted that he had lost eighteen thousand men. 
Of the enemy, twenty-four thousand had been killed, wounded, 
or taken. 

Part of the defeated army was shut up in Prague. Part fled 
to join the troops which, under the command of Daun, were 
now close at hand. Frederick determined to play over the same 
game which had succeeded at Lowositz. He left a large force 
to besiege Prague, and at the head of thirty thousand men he 
marched against Daun. The cautious marshal, though he had 
a great superiority in numbers, would risk nothing. He occu- 
pied at Kolin a position almost impregnable, and awaited the 
attack of the king. 

It was the I8th of June — a day which, if the Greek super- 
stition still retained its influence, would be held sacred to Ne- 
mesis — a day on which the two greatest princes and soldiers of 
modern times were taught, by a terrible experience, that neither 
skill nor valour can fix the inconstancy of fortune. The buttle 
began before noon ; and part of the Prussian army maintained 
the contest till after the midsummer sun had gone down. But 
at length the king found that his troops, having been repeatedly 
driven back with frightful carnage, could no longer be led to 
the charge. He was with difficulty persuaded to quit the field. 
The officers of his personal staff were under the necessity of 
expostulating with him, and one of them took the liberty to 



420 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

saj, " Does your majesty mean to storm the batteries alone ?" 
Thirteen thousand of his bravest followers had perished. No- 
thing remained for him but to retreat in good order, to raise 
the siege of Prague, and to hurry his army by different routes 
out of Bohemia. 

This stroke seemed to be final. Frederick's situation had at 
best been such, that only an uninterrupted run of good-luck 
could save him, as it seemed, from ruin. And now, almost in 
the outset of the contest, he had met with a check which, even 
in a war between equal powers, would have been felt as serious. 
He had owed much to the opinion which all Europe entertained 
of his army. Since his accession, his soldiers had in many 
successive battles been victorious over the Austrians. But the 
glory had departed from his arms. All whom his malevolent 
sarcasms had wounded, made haste to avenge themselves by 
scoffing at the scoffer. His soldiers had ceased to confide in 
his star. In every part of his camp his dispositions were se- 
verely criticised. Even in his own family he had detractors. 
His next brother, William, heir-presumptive, or rather, in truth, 
heir-apparent to the throne, and great-grandfather of the pre- 
sent king, could not refrain from lamenting his own fate and 
that of the house of Hohenzollern, once so great and so pros- 
perous, but now, by the rash ambition of its chief, made a by- 
word to all nations. These complaints, and some blunders 
which William committed during the retreat from Bohemia, 
called forth the bitter displeasure of the inexorable king. The 
prince's heart was broken by the cutting reproaches of his bro- 
ther ; he quitted the army, retired to a country seat, and in a 
short time died of shame and vexation. 

It seemed that the king's distress could hardly be increased. 
Yet at this moment another blow not less terrible than that of 
Kolin fell upon him. The French, under Marshal D'Estrees, 
had invaded Germany. The duke of Cumberland had given 
them battle at Hastembeck, and had been defeated. In order 
to save the electorate of Hanover from entire subjugation, he 
had made at Closter Severn an arrangement with the French 
generals, which left them at liberty to turn their arms again£:,c 
the Prussian dominions. 

That nothing might be wanting to Frederick's distress, he lost 
his mother just at this time ; and he appears to have felt the 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 421 

loss more than was to be expected from the hardness and seve- 
rity of his character. In truth, his misfortunes had now cut 
to the quick. The mocker, the tyrant, the most rigorous, the 
most imperious, the most cynical of men, was very unhappy. 
Ills face was so haggard, and his form so thin, that when, on 
Ills return from Bohemia, he passed through Leipsic, the people 
hardly knew him again. His sleep was broken ; the tears, in 
spite of himself, often started into his eyes ; and the grave be- 
gan to present itself to his agitated mind as the best refuge 
from misery and dishonour. His resolution was fixed never to 
be taken alive, and never to make peace on condition of de- 
scending from his place among the powers of Europe. He saw 
nothing left for him except to die ; and he deliberately chose 
his mode of death. He always carried about with him a sure 
and speedy poison in a small glass case ; and to the few in 
whom he placed confidence, he made no mystery of his resolu- 
tion. 

* * * * ^t the beginning of November, the net 
seemed to have closed completely round him. The Russians 
were in the field, and were spreading devastation through his 
eastern provinces. Silesia was overrun by the Austrians. A 
great French army was advancing from the west under the 
command of Marshal Soubise, a prince of the great Armorican 
house of Rohan. Berlin itself had been taken and plundered 
by the Croatians. Such was the situation from which Frederick 
extricated himself, with dazzling glory, in the short space of 
thirty days. 

He marched first against Soubise. On the fifth of Novem- 
ber, the armies met at Rosbach. The French were two to one ; 
but they were ill-disciplined, and their general was a dunce. 
The tactics of Frederick, and the well-regulated valour of the 
Prussian troops, obtained a complete victory. Seven thousand 
of the invaders were made prisoners. Their guns, their colours, 
their baggage, fell into the hands of the conquerors. Those 
who escaped fled as confusedly as a mob scattered by cavalry. 
Victorious in the west, the king turned his arms towards Sile- 
sia. In that quarter every thing seemed to be lost. Breslau 
had fallen ; and Charles of Lorraine, with a mighty power, held 
the whole province. On the fifth of December, exactly one 
month after the battle of Rosbach, Frederick, with forty thou- 

2L 



422 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

sand men, and Prince Charles, at the head of not less than 
sixty thousand, met at Leuthen, hard by Breslau. The king, 
Avho was, in general, perhaps, too much inclined to consider the 
common soldier as a mere machine, resorted, on this great day, 
to means resembling those which Bonaparte afterwards em- 
ployed with such signal success for the purpose of stimulating 
military enthusiasm. The principal officers were convoked. 
Frederick addressed them with great force and pathos, and di- 
rected them to speak to their men as he had spoken to them. 
When the armies were set in battle array, the Prussian troops 
were in a state of fierce excitement ; but their excitement 
showed itself after the fashion of a grave people. The columns 
advanced to the attack chanting, to the sound of drums and 
fifes, the rude hymns of the old Saxon Hernholds. They 
had never fought so well ; nor had the genius of their chief 
ever been so conspicuous. " That battle," said Napoleon, 
" was a masterpiece. Of itself it is sufficient to entitle Fre- 
derick to aplace in the first rank among generals." The vic- 
tory was complete. Twenty-seven thousand Austrians were 
killed, wounded, or taken ; fifty stand of colours, a hundred 
guns, four thousand wagons, fell into the hands of the Prus- 
sians. Breslau opened its gates ; Silesia was reconquered ; 
Charles of Lorraine retired to hide his shame and sorrow, at 
Brussels ; and Frederick allowed his troops to take some repose 
in winter-quarters, after a campaign, to the vicissitudes of which 
it will be difficult to find any parallel in ancient or modern 
history. 

The news of the battle of Rosbach stirred the blood of the 
whole of the mighty population from the Alps to the Baltic, 
and from the borders of Courland to those of Lorraine. West- 
phalia and Lower Saxony had been deluged by a great host of 
strangers, whose speech was unintelligible, and whose petulant 
and licentious manners had excited the strongest feelings of dis- 
gust and hatred. That great host had been put to flight by a 
small band of German warriors, led by a prince of German 
blood on the side of father and mother, and marked by the fair 
hair and the clear blue eye of Germany. Never, since the dis- 
solution of the empire of Charlemagne, had the Teutonic race 
won such a field against the French. The tidings called forth 
a general burst of delight and pride from the whole of the great 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMAI^Y. 423 

family which spoke the various dialects of the ancient language 
of Arminius. The fame of Frederick began to supply, in some 
degree, the place of a common government and of a common 
capital. It became a rallying point for all true Germans — a 
subject of mutual congratulation to the Bavarian and the West- 
phalian, to the citizen of Frankfort and the citizen of Nurem- 
burg. Then first it was manifest that the Germans were truly 
a nation. Then first was discernible that patriotic spirit which, 
in 1813, achieved the great deliverance of central Europe, and 
which still guards, and long will guard, against foreign ambi- 
tion, the old freedom of the Rhine. 

Nor were the efiects produced by that celebrated day merely 
political. The greatest masters of German poetry and elo- 
quence have admitted that, though the great king neither valued 
nor understood his native language, though he looked on France 
as the only seat of taste and philosophy, yet, in his own de- 
spite, he did much to emancipate the genius of his countrymen 
from the foreign yoke ; and that, in the act of vanquishing 
Soubise, he was, unintentionally, rousing the spirit which soon 
began to question the literary precedence of Boileau and Vol- 
taire. So strangely do events confound all the plans of man. A 
prince who read only French, who wrote only French, who ranked 
as a French classic, became, quite unconsciously, the means of 
liberating half the continent from the dominion of that French 
criticism, of which he was himself, to the end of his life, a slave. 
Yet even the enthusiasm of Germany, in favour of Frederick, 
hardly equalled the enthusiasm of England. The birth-day of her 
ally was celebrated with as much enthusiasm as that of her own 
sovereign, and at night the streets of London were in a blaze 
with illuminations. Portraits of the hero of Rosbach, with his 
cocked hat and long pig-tail, were in every house. An atten- 
tive observer will, at this day, find in the parlours of old- 
fashioned inns, and in the portfolios of print-sellers, twenty 
portraits of Frederick for one of George II. The sign-painters 
were everywhere employed in touching up Admiral Vernon into 
the king of Prussia. Some young Englishmen of rank pro- 
posed to visit Germany as volunteers, for the purpose of learn- 
ing the art of war under the greatest of commanders. This last 
proof of British attachment and admiration, Frederick politely 
but firmly declined. His camp was no place for amateur stu- 



424 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

dents of military science. The Prussian discipline was rigor- 
ous even to cruelty. The officers, -while in the field, were ex- 
pected to practise an abstemiousness and self-denial such as was 
hardly surpassed by the most rigid^ monastic orders. However 
noble their birth, however high their rank in the service, they 
were not permitted to eat from any thing better than pewter. 
It was a high crime even in a count and field-marshal to have 
a single silver spoon among his baggage. Gay young English- 
men of twenty thousand a year, accustomed to liberty and to 
luxury, would not easily submit to these Spartan restraints. 
The king could not venture to keep them in order as he kept 
his own subjects in order. Situated as he was with respect to 
England, he could not well imprison or shoot refractory How- 
ards and Cavendishes. On the other hand, the example of a 
few fine gentlemen, attended by chariots and livery servants, 
eating in plate, and drinking champagne and tokay, was enough 
to corrupt his whole army. He thought it best to make a stand 
at first, and civilly refused to admit such dangerous companions 
among his troops. 

The help of England was bestowed in a manner far mort 
useful and more acceptable. An annual subsidy of near seven 
hundred thousand pounds enabled the king to add probably 
more than fifty thousand men to his army. Pitt, now at the 
height of power and popularity, undertook the task of defending 
Western Germany against France, and asked Frederick only 
for the loan of a general. The general selected was Prince 
Ferdinand. of Brunswick, who had attained a high distinction in 
the Prussian service. He was put at the head of an army, 
partly English, partly Hanoverian, partly composed of merce- 
naries hired from the petty princes of the empire. He soon 
vindicated the choice of the two allied courts, and proved him- 
self the second general of the age. 

Frederick passed the winter at Breslau, in reading, writing, 
and preparing for the next campaign. The havoc which the 
war had made among his troops was rapidly repaired ; and in 
the spring of 1758 he was again ready for the conflict. Prince 
Ferdinand kept the French in check. The king, in the mean 
time, after attempting against the Austrians some operation? 
which led to no very important result, marched to encounter the 
Russians, who, slaying, burning, and wasting wherever they 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 427 

turned, had penetrated into the heart of his realm. He gave 
them battle at Zorndorf, near Frankfort on the Oder. The 
fight was long and bloody. Quarter was neither given nor taken ; 
for the Germans and Scythians regarded each other with bitter 
aversion, and the sight of the ravages committed by the half- 
savage invaders had incensed the king and his army. The Rus- 
sians were overthrown with great slaughter, and for a few months 
no further danger was to be apprehended from the east. 

A day of thanksgiving was proclaimed by the king, and was 
celebrated with pride and delight by his people. The rejoicings 
in England were not less enthusiastic nor less sincere. This 
may be selected as the point of time at which the military glory 
of Frederick reached the zenith. In the short space of three- 
quarters of a year he had won three great battles over the 
armies of three mighty and warlike monarchies — France, Aus- 
tria, and Russia. 

But it was decreed that the temper of that strong mind should 
be tried by both extremes of fortune in rapid succession. Close 
upon this bright series of triumphs came a series of disasters, 
such as would have blighted the fame and broken the heart of 
almost any other commander. Yet Frederick, in the midst of 
his calamities, was still an object of admiration to his subjects, 
his allies, and his enemies. Overwhelmed by adversity, sick of 
life, he still maintained the contest — greater in defeat, in flight, 
and in what seemed hopeless ruin, than on the fields of his 
proudest victories. 

Having vanquished the Russians, he hastened into Saxony to op- 
pose the troops of the empress-queen, commanded by Daun, the 
most cautious, and Laudohn, the most inventive and enterprising 
of her generals. These two celebrated commanders agreed on a 
scheme, in which the prudence of the one and the vigour of the 
other seem to have happily combined. At dead of night they 
surprised the king in his camp at Hochkirchen. His presence 
of mind saved his troops from destruction ; but nothing could 
save them from defeat and severe loss. Marshal Keith was 
among, the slain. The first roar of the guns roused the noble 
exile from his rest, and he was instantly in the front of the bat- 
tle. He received a dangerous wound, but refused to quit the 
field, and was in the act of rallying his broken troops, when an 
Austrian bullet terminated his chequered and eventful life. 



428 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

The misfortune was serious. But of all generals Frederick 
understood best how to repair defeat, and Daun understood least 
how to improve victory. In a few days the Prussian army was 
as formidable as before the battle. The prospect was, however, 
gloomy. An Austrian army under General Harsch had in- 
vaded Silesia, and invested the fortress of Neisse. Daun, after his 
success at Hochkirchen, had written to Harsch in very confident 
terms : — " Go on with your operations against Neisse. Be quite 
at ease as to the king. I will give you a good account of him." 
In truth, the position of the Prussians was full of difficulties. 
Between them and Silesia lay the victorious army of Daun. It 
was not easy for them to reach Silesia at all. If they did reach 
it, they left Saxony exposed to the Austrians. But the vigour 
and activity of Frederick surmounted every obstacle. He made 
a circuitous march of extraordinary rapidity, passed Daun, 
hastened into Silesia, raised the siege of Neisse, and drove 
Harsch into Bohemia. Daun availed himself of the king's ab- 
sence to attack Dresden. The Prussians defended it desperately. 
The inhabitants of that wealthy and polished capital begged in 
vain for mercy from the garrison within, and from the besiegers 
without. The beautiful suburbs were burned to the ground. It 
was clear that the town, if won at all, would be won street by 
street by the bayonet. At this conjuncture came news, that 
Frederick, having cleared Silesia of his enemies, was returning 
by forced marches into Saxony. Daun retired from before 
Dresden, and fell back into the Austrian territories. The king, 
over heaps of ruins, made his triumphant entry into the unhappy 
metropolis, which had so cruelly expiated the weak and perfidious 
policy of its sovereign. It was now the 20th of November. The 
cold weather suspended military operations ; and the king again 
took up his winter quarters at Breslau. 

The third of the seven terrible years was over, and Frederick 
still stood his ground. The fourth campaign, the most disastrous 
of all the campaigns of this fearful war, now opened. The Aus- 
trians filled Saxony, and menaced Berlin. The Russians de- 
feated the king's generals on the Oder, threatened Silesia, 
effected a junction with Laudohn, and intrenched themselves 
strongly at Kunersdorf. Frederick hastened to attack them. A 
great battle was fought. During the earlier part of the day every- 
thing yielded to the impetuosity of the Prussians, and to the skill 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 429 

of their chief. The lines were forced. Half the Russian guns were 
taken. The king sent off a courier to Berlin with two lines, an- 
nouncing a complete victory. But, in the mean time, the stubborn 
Russians, defeated yet unbroken, had taken up their stand in an 
almost impregnable position, on an eminence where the Jews of 
Frankfort were wont to bury their dead. Here the battle re-com- 
menced. The Prussian infantry, exhausted by six hours of hard 
fighting under a sun which equalled the tropical heat, were yet 
brought up repeatedly to the attack, but in vain. The king led 
three charges in person. Two horses were killed under him. 
The officers of his staff fell around him. His coat was pierced 
by several bullets. All was in vain. His infantry was driven 
back with frightful slaughter. Terror began to spread fast from 
man to man. At that moment, the fiery cavalry of Laudohn, 
still fresh, rushed on the wavering ranks. Then followed a 
universal rout. Frederick himself was on the point of falling 
into the hands of the conquerors, and was with difficulty saved 
by a gallant officer, who, at the head of a handful of hussars, 
made good a diversion of a few minutes. Shattered in body, 
shattered in mind, the king reached that night a village which 
the Cossacks had plundered ; and there, in a ruined and deserted 
farm-house, flung himself on a heap of straw. He had sent to 
Berlin a second despatch very different from his first : — " Let 
the royal family leave Berlin. Send the archives to Potsdam. 
The town may make terms with the enemy." 

The defeat was in truth overwhelming. Of fifty thousand 
men, who had that morning marched under the black eagles, not 
three thousand remained together. The king bethought him 
again of his corrosive sublimate, and wrote to bid adieu to his 
friends, and to give directions as to the measures to be taken in 
the event of his death: — " I have no resource left" — such is the 
language of one of his letters — " all is lost. I will not survive 
the ruin of my country. Farewell for ever." 

But the mutual jealousies of the confederates prevented them 
from following up their victory. They lost a few days in loi- 
tering and squabbling ; and a few days, improved by Frederick, 
were worth more than the years of other men. On the morning 
after the battle, he had got together eighteen thousand of his 
troops. Very soon his force amounted to thirty thousand. 
Guns were procured from the neighbouring fortresses ; and there 



430 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

was again an army. Berlin was for the present safe ; but car 
lamities came pouring on the king in uninterrupted succession. 
One of his generals, with a large body of troops, was taken at 
Maxen ; another was defeated at Meissen ; and when at length 
the campaign of 1759 closed, in the midst of a rigorous winter, 
the situation of Prussia appeared desperate. The only consoling 
circumstance was, that, in the west, Ferdinand of Brunswick 
had been more fortunate than his master ; and by a series of 
exploits, of which the battle of Minden was the most glorious, 
had removed all apprehension of danger on the side of France. 

The fifth year was now about to commence. It seemed im- 
possible that the Prussian territories, repeatedly devastated by 
hundreds of thousands of invaders, could longer support the 
contest. But the king carried on war as no European power 
has ever carried en war, except the committee of Public Safety 
during the great agony of the French Revolution. He governed 
his kingdom as he would have governed a besieged town, not 
caring to what extent property was destroyed, or the pursuits of 
civil life suspended, so that he did but make head against the 
enemy. As long as there was a man left in Prussia, that man 
might carry a musket — as long as there was a horse left, that 
horse might draw artillery. The coin was debased, the civil 
functionaries were left unpaid ; in some provinces civil govern- 
ment altogether ceased to exist. But there were still rye-bread 
and potatoes; there were still lead and gunpowder; and while 
the means of sustaining and destroying life remained, Frederick 
was determined to fight it out to the very last. 

The earlier part of the campaign of 1760 was unfavourable 
to him. Berlin was again occupied by the enemy. Great con- 
tributions were levied on the inhabitants, and the royal palace 
was plundered. But at length, after two years of calamity, vic- 
tory came back to his arms. At Lignitz he gained a great bat- 
tle over Laudohn ; at Torgau, after a day of horrible carnage, 
he triumphed over Daun, The fifth year closed, and still the 
event was in suspense. In the countries where the war had 
raged, the misery and exhaustion were more appalling than ever ; 
but still there were left men and beasts, arms and food, and still 
Frederick fought on. In truth he had now been baited into sa- 
vageness. His heart was ulcerated with hatred. The implacable 
resentment with which his enemies persecuted him, though ori- 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY, 43, 

ginally provoked by his own unprincipled ambition, eitcited in 
him a thirst for vengeance which he did not even attempt co con- 
ceal. "It is hard," he says in one of his letters, "for man to 
bear what I bear. I begin to feel that, as the Italians say, re- 
venge is a pleasure for the gods. My philosophy is worn out 
by suflfering. I am no saint, like those of whom we read in the 
legends ; and I will own that I should die content if only I could 
first inflict a portion of the misery which I endure." 

Borne up by such feelings, he struggled with various success, 
but constant glory, through the campaign of 1761. On the 
whole, the result of this campaign was disastrous to Prussia. 
No great battle was gained by the enemy ; but, in spite of the 
desperate bounds of the hunted tiger, the circle of pursuers was 
fast closing round him. Laudohn had surprised the important 
fortress of Schweidnitz. With that fortress, half of Silesia, and 
the command of the most important defiles through the moun- 
tains, had been transferred to the Austrians. The Russians had 
overpowered the king's generals in Pomerania. The country was 
so completely desolated that he began, by his own confession, 
to look round him with blank despair, unable to imagine where 
recruits, horses, or provisions, were to be found. 

Just at this time two great events brought on a complete change 
in the relations of almost all the powers of Europe. One of 
those events was the retirement of Mr. Pitt from office, the 
other was the death of the empress Elizabeth of Russia. 

The retirement of Pitt seemed to be an omen of utter ruin to 
the house of Brandenburg. His proud and vehement nature 
was incapable of any thing that looked like either fear or trea- 
chery. He had often declared that, while he was in power, 
England should never make a peace of Utrecht ; — should never, 
for any selfish object, abandon an ally even in the last extremity 
of distress. The continental war was his own war. He had 
been bold enough — he who in former times had attacked, with 
irresistible powers of oratory, the Hanoverian policy of Carteret 
and the German subsidies of Newcastle — to declare that Hano- 
ver ought to be as dear to us as Hampshire, and that he would 
conquer America in Germany. He had fallen ; and the power 
which he had exercised, not always with discretion, but always 
with vigour and genius, had devolved on a favourite who was the 
representative of the Tory party — of the party which had 



482 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

thwarted William, which had persecuted Marlborough, and 
wliich had given up the Catalans to the vengeance of Philip of 
Anjou. To make peace with France — to shake oif with all, or 
more than all, the speed compatible with decency, every conti 
nental connection, these were among the chief objects of the 
new minister. The policy then followed inspired Frederick 
with an unjust, but deep and bitter aversion to the English 
name ; and produced effects which are still felt throughout the 
civilized world. To that policy it was owing that, some years 
later England, could not find on the whole continent a single 
ally to stand by her, in her extreme need, against the house of 
Bourbon. To that policy it was owing that Frederick, alienated 
from England, was compelled to connect himself closely, during 
his later years, with Russia ; and was induced reluctantly to 
assist in that great crime, the fruitful parent of other great 
crimes — the first partition of Poland. 

Scarcely had the retreat of Mr. Pitt deprived Prussia of her 
only friend, when the death of Elizabeth produced an entire 
revolution in the politics of the north. The grand-duke Peter, 
her nephew, who now ascended the Russian throne, was not 
merely free from the prejudices which his aunt had entertained 
against Frederick, but was a worshipper, a servile imitator, a 
Boswell, of the great king. The days of the new czar's go- 
vernment were few and evil, but sufficient to produce a change 
in the whole state of Christendom. He set the Prussian pri- 
soners at liberty, fitted them out decently, and sent them back 
to their master ; he withdrew his troops from the provinces 
which Elizabeth had decided on incorporating with her domi- 
nions, and absolved all those Prussian subjects, who had been 
compelled to swear fealty to Russia, from their engagements. 

Not content with concluding peace on terms favourable to 
Prussia, he solicited rank in the Prussian service, dressed him- 
self in a Prussian uniform, wore the black eagle of Prussia on 
his breast, made preparations for visiting Prussia, in order to 
have an interview with the object of his idolatry, and actually 
sent fifteen thousand excellent troops to reinforce the shattered 
army of Frederick. Thus strengthened, the king speedily re- 
paired the losses of the preceding year, reconquered Silesia, 
defeated Daun at Buckersdorf, invested and retook Schweidnitz, 
and, at the close of the year, presented to the forces of Maria 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 433 

Theresa a front as formidable as before the great reverses of 
1759. Before the end of the campaign, his friend, the empe- 
ror Peter, having, by a series of absurd insults to the institu- 
tions, manners, and feelings of his people, united them in hos- 
tility to his person and government, was deposed and murdered. 
The empress who, under the title of Catherine the Second, now 
assumed the supreme power, was, at the commencement of her 
administration, by no means partial to Frederick, and refused 
to permit her troops to remain under his command. But she 
observed the peace made by her husband, and Prussia was no 
longer threatened by danger from the East. 

England and France, at the same time, paired off together. 
They concluded a treaty, by which they bound themselves to 
observe neutrality with respect to the German war. Thus the 
coalitions on both sides were dissolved, and the original enemies, 
Austria and Prussia, remained alone confronting each other. 

Austria had undoubtedly by far greater means than Prussia, 
and was less exhausted by hostilities ; yet it seemed hardly pos- 
sible that Austria could effect alone what she had in vain at- 
tempted to effect, when supported by France on the one side 
and by Russia on the other. Danger also began to menace the 
Imperial house from another quarter. The Ottoman porte held 
threatening language, and a hundred thousand Turks were mus- 
tered on the frontiers of Hungary. The proud and revengeful 
spirit of the empress-queen at length gave way ; and in Febru- 
ary, 1763, the peace of Hubertsburg put an end to the conflict 
which had, during seven years, devastated Germany. The king 
ceded nothing. The whole continent in arms had proved unable 
to tear Silesia from that iron grasp. 

The war was over. Frederick was safe. His glory was be- 
yond the reach of envy. If he had not made conquests as vast 
as those of Alexander, of Csesar, and of Napoleon — if he had 
not, on the field of battle, enjoyed the constant success of Marl- 
borough and Wellington — he had yet given an example unrivalled 
in history of what capacity and resolution can effect against 
the greatest superiority of power and the utmost spite of for- 
tune. He entered Berlin in triumph, after an absence of more 
than six years. The streets were brilliantly lighted up ; and, 
as he passed along in an open carriage, with Ferdinand of 
Brunswick at his side, the multitude saluted him with loud 
55 2M 



434 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

praises and blessings. He was moved by those marks of attach- 
ment, and repeatedly exclaimed — " Long live my dear people ! — 
long live my children !" Yet, even in the midst of that gay 
spectacle, he could not but perceive everywhere the traces of 
destruction and decay. The city had been more than once 
plundered. The population had considerably diminished. Ber- 
lin, however, had suffered little when compared with most parts 
of the kingdom. The ruin of private fortunes, the distress of 
all ranks, was such as might appal the firmest mind. Almost 
every province had been the seat of war, and of war conducted 
with merciless ferocity. Clouds of Croatians had descended 
on Silesia. Tens of thousands of Cossacks had been let loose 
on Pomerania and Brandenburg. The mere contributions levied 
by the invaders amounted, it was said, to more than a hundred 
millions of dollars; and the value of what they extorted was 
probably much less than the value of what they destroyed. 
The fields lay uncultivated. The very seed-corn had been 
devoured in the madness of hunger. Famine and contagious 
maladies, the effect of famine, had swept away the herds and 
flocks, and there was reason to fear that a great pestilence 
among the human race was likely to follow in the train of that 
tremendous war. Near fifteen thousand houses had been burned 
to the ground. 

The population of the kingdom had in seven years decreased 
to the frightful extent of ten per cent. A sixth of the males 
capable of bearing arms had actually perished on the field of 
battle. ■ In some districts, no labourers, except women, were 
iseen in the fields at harvest-time. In others, the traveller 
passed shuddering through a succession of silent villages, in 
which not a single inhabitant remained. The currency had 
been debased ; the authority of laws and magistrates had been 
suspended ; the whole social system was deranged. For, during 
that convulsive struggle, every thing that was not military vio- 
lence was anarchy. Even the army was disorganized. Some 
great generals, and a crowd of excellent officers, had fallen, 
and it had been impossible to supply their places. The diffi- 
culty of finding recruits had, towards the close of the war, been 
so great that selection and rejection were impossible. Whole 
battalions were composed of deserters or of prisoners. It was 
hardly to be hoped that thirty years of repose and industry 



THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR IN GERMANY. 



435 



would repair the ruin produced by seven years of havoc. One 
consolatory circumstance, indeed, there was. No debt had been 
incurred. The burdens of the war had been terrible, — almost 
insupportable ; but no arrear was left to embarrass the finances 
in the time of peace.* 

* For this account of the Seven Years' War, we are indebted to Macaulay. 




436 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




WASHINGTON. 



OPENING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 





T the close of the Seven 
Years' War, which termi- 
nated in America with 
the conquest of Canada, 
the British colonists in 
this country were well disposed to- 
wards the parent country ; but an 
attempt on the part of the British 
government to restrict their com- 
merce and subject them to stamp du- 
ties and other taxes, without representation in parliament, cre- 
ated strong discontent. A series of aggressions followed, such 



OPENING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 437 

as the quartering of troops on the people, the Boston massa- 
cre of 1770, and the shutting up of the port by the famous 
Boston port bill, until, in 1774, a congress composed of dele- 
gates from twelve of the thirteen colonies assembled in Phila- 
delphia, and prepared for organized resistance to the mother 
country. The acts of this congress countenanced the people 
of Massachusetts in their resistance to the oppressive port bill ; 
and, while addresses to the king and the people of England 
were voted, they hinted at the necessity of looking forward to 
melancholy events, and of being ready for every contingency 
which might arise. 

The inclinations of the people were in exact agreement with 
the decisions of the congress. The inhabitants of Boston were 
supplied by contributions from all quarters. Even those who, 
by their situation, appeared the most likely to derive advantages 
from the cessation of their trade, were most forward to relieve 
them in their distress ; and the people of Marblehead, a town 
at no great distance, generously offered them the use of their 
harbour, and of their wharfs and warehouses, free of all ex- 
pense. Every one who could procure arms was diligent in 
learning how to use them. The whole country of Massachu- 
setts seemed ready to rise. In the mean time, British troops 
assembled in greater numbers at Boston ; and General Gage 
thought it prudent to fortify the neck of land which joins that 
city to the continent. He also seized the magazines of gun- 
powder, ammunition, and military stores at Cambridge and 
Charlestown ; and thus, by depriving the colonists for a time 
of the means of annoying him, he rendered them less able to 
carry their designs into execution. An assembly was called, 
and its sitting immediately countermanded ; but the representa- 
tives met, notwithstanding the proclamation of the governor, 
and, after waiting a day for his arrival, they voted themselves 
" a provincial congress." Winter approached ; the people re- 
fused to supply the troops either with lodging or clothes ; the 
selectmen of Boston obliged the workmen employed in erecting 
the barracks to desist ; and the merchants of New York de- 
clared that they would " never supply any article for the benefit 
of men who were sent as the enemies of their country." 

All hope of reconciliation with Britain was now at an end. 
The provincials took possession of the stores which belonged to 



438 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




BATTLE OF CONCOBD. 



the government wherever they were able to secure them ; and 
at Newport, in Rhode Island, the inhabitants carried off no 
fewer than forty pieces of cannon, intended for the defence of 
the place, alleging that they seized them in order to prevent 
them from being used against their liberties and their lives. 
The assemblies in all the colonies voted that ammunition should 
be procured at the general expense ; and it required but little 
foresight to discover that a civil war, with all its fearful conse- 
quences, was about to ensue. 

General Gage, having received intelligence that a number of 
field-pieces were collected at Salem, despatched a party of sol- 
diers to take possession of them in the name of the king. The 
people, however, assembling in great numbers, prevented the 
military from advancing to the town by pulling up a drawbridge 
which it was necessary for them to pass, and they returned to 
the governor without accomplishing their purpose. The next 
attempt was followed by more interesting consequences. The 
provincials had deposited a large quantity of ammunition and 
stores at Concord, about twenty miles from Boston ; these Ge- 
neral Gage resolved to seize or to destroy, and with that view 
he sent a detachment of eight hundred men, under the com- 
mand of Major Pitcairn and Colonel Smith, ordering them to 



OPENING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 439 

proceed with the utmost expedition, and with all possible se- 
crecy. But, notwithstanding his care and the alacrity of the 
soldiers, the provincials had immediate notice of his design ; 
and, when the British-troops arrived at Lexington, within five 
miles of Concord, the militia of the place were drawn up on the 
parade and ready to receive them. A skirmish ensuing, seve- 
ral of the Americans were killed. The rest fled without mak- 
ing any further resistance ; and the detachment, proceeding to 
Concord, destroyed or took possession of the stores which were 
there. Having effected their purpose, the military now began 
to retire ; but the colonists, pressing upon them on all sides, 
they were driven from post to post till they arrived at Lexing- 
ton, where, their ammunition being expended, they must infal- 
libly have been cut off, if Lord Percy had not been sent by the 
governor with a strong party to their assistance. In conse- 
quence of this reinforcement, they quitted Lexington and con- 
tinued their march towards Boston, which they reached the day 
after, though not without frequent interruption and very great 
difficulty. In the affair of Lexington, which has been justly 
regarded as the commencement of the American war, and in 
the retreat from that place, the British lost nearly two hundred 
and fifty men. 

The colonists, elevated with their success in this engagement, 
became more and more fixed in their opposition, and even medi- 
tated the total expulsion of the English from Boston. An 
army of twenty thousand men encamped in the neighbourhood 
of the city, and that force was soon increased by the arrival of 
the troops from Connecticut, under General Putnam, an officer 
of great bravery and of tried skill in the military art ; but 
Gage had fortified the town so strongly, that, numerous as they 
were, the provincials durst not attempt it by assault ; while, on 
the other hand, the governor was too weak to contend with them 
in the field. It was not long, however, before he was able to 
act on the offensive. A powerful reinforcement arrived from 
England, under Generals Howe, Burgoyne, and Clinton. Mar- 
tial law was proclaimed, and pardon was offered to such as 
would return to their allegiance. 

On the 16th of June, A. d. 1775, the Americans took pos- 
session of ]junker's Hill, an eminence which overlooks and 
commands the town of Boston, and, labouring with incredible 



440 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

diligence and secrecy, they threw up a redoubt, and protected 
it by means of an intrenchment, before the approach of day 
enabled the British to discover "what they had done. From this 
position General Gage thought it necessary to dislodge them. 
Accordingly, he directed a strong body of men, under the or- 
ders of Generals Howe and Pigot, to land at the foot of Bunker's 
Hill, and to proceed with a detachment of the artillery against 
the Americans. But the latter, having the advantage of the 
ground, poured upon them such an incessant and deadly fire of 
musketry that the British were thrown into confusion, and so 
many of the officers were killed that General Howe was left 
almost alone. Yet, though twice repulsed, the king's troops 
rallied and advanced again towards the fortifications which the 
provincials had erected. The redoubt was now attacked on 
three sides at once ; the ammunition of the colonists began to 
fail ; and the British pressing forward, the Americans were con- 
strained to abandon the post, and to retreat in the face of the 
enemy over Charlestown Neck ; where they were exposed to a 
galling fire from the ships in the harbour. In this battle, the 
town of Charlestown, which is separated from Boston by a nar- 
row sheet of water, was reduced to ashes by the orders of Ge- 
neral Pigot, who was saved by that measure, as well as by the 
arrival of General Clinton, from the ignominy of a defeat. 

Though the victory in the attack at Bunker's Hill was justly 
claimed by the royalists, it was not gained without considerable 
loss on their part. The flower of the English troops in Ame- 
rica were engaged, and their killed and wounded amounted to 
ten hundred and fifty-four ; while those of the provincials were 
not above the half of that number. But, while the colonists 
sufi'ered a defeat in this encounter, they were elated in no ordi- 
nary degree at the intrepidity which their forces had displayed ; 
and they entertained the hope that patriotism and an ardent love 
of freedom would enable them to withstand the assaults of the 
British, till experience should render them equal to them in 
discipline and military skill. 

They erected fortifications on the heights in the neighbour- 
hood of Charlestown, and reduced the king's troops in Boston 
to very great distress for want of provisions. Far from enter- 
taining any thought of submission, they redoubled their exer- 
tions, and increased their vigilance. In the mean time, the 



OPENING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



44ii 




MOUNT VEKNOK. 



congress, which had again been assembled, acted with all the 
decision which was expected from them : they drew up articles 
of perpetual union ; they published a declaration in which they 
justified the measures which had been adopted at Bunker's Hill ; 
they resolved to establish an army, and to issue a large quan- 
tity of paper money in order to support it. They held a solemn 
conference with the Indians, by whom they were surrounded, 
telling them that the English had begun the war with a view 
to enslave them, as well as their own countrymen in America ; 
and by this, in conjunction with other arguments, they induced 
many of the savage tribes either to assist them, or to remain 
neuter during a great part of the contest which followed. 

The provincials now wanted nothing but a leader to enable 
them to take efiectual measures against the British, and they 
soon found, in the person of George Washington, a man quali- 
fied in every respect to occupy that high and important station. 
He was the third son of Augustine Washington, a settler in 
Virginia. His education was limited to what could be obtained 
from books written in the English language ; but he derived 
from nature a mind of extraordinary capacity, and was endowed 
with prudence, courage, and perseverance, beyond the degree 
which is allotted to common men. At the age of nineteen, he 
held the rank of major in the provincial troops of Virginia. 



444 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




■WASHINQTON 8 HEAD-QUARTBBa AT OAMBBIDOB- 

He afterwards distinguished himself against the French, in 
their attempts to unite their possessions in Canada with those 
in Louisiana, and had the command of a regiment about the 
same time. At the conclusion of the war, which terminated in 
the surrender of Canada to the British, he retired to his estate 
of Mount Vernon, and devoted himself to agricultural employ- 
ments, till the troubles in which the Americans were involved 
led him to take an active part in their defence against the at- 
tempts of the English cabinet to tax them without their con- 
sent. He was chosen a member of the first grand congress at 
Philadelphia, where his example and influence produced very 
considerable effects ; and now that the situation of the provin- 
cials called for a man of tried firmness and approved judgment, 
he was unanimously elected " general and commander-in-chief 
of the army of the united colonies." When his appointment 
was intimated to him by the president of the congress, he mo- 
destly observed that he was not equal to the duties of the sta- 
tion to which their partiality had raised him ; but he declared 



OPENING Oh" THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 445 

at the same time that he was ready to exert whatever talents 
he might have in the service of his country, and willing to 
enter immediately on the performance of his duty. 

On arriving at Cambridge, the head-quarters of the Ameri- 
can army. General Washington inspected and reviewed the 
troops. He found them animated with great zeal, and pre- 
pared to follow him to the most desperate undertakings ; but it 
was not long before he perceived that they were unacquainted 
with subordination, and strangers to military discipline. The 
spirit of liberty, which had brought them together, showed 
itself in all their actions. In the province of Massachusetts, 
the officers had been chosen by the votes of the soldiers, and 
felt themselves in no degree superior to them. The congres- 
sional and colonial authorities likewise interfered with one 
another. The troops were scantily supplied with arms and am- 
munition, and all their operations were retarded by the want 
of engineers. These difficulties, however, were overcome by the 
talents and perseverance of Washington ; he formed the soldiers 
into brigades, and accustomed them to obedience ; he requested 
the congress to nominate a commissary-general, a quartermas- 
ter-general, and a paymaster-general, all of which officers they 
had neglected to appoint ; a number of the most active men were 
constantly employed in learning to manage the artillery ; and 
such were the effijrts of the commander-in-chief, that in no very 
long time the army was completely organized and fit for service. 

It was not the temper of Washington to remain inactive. 
His troops were speedily and regularly encamped before the 
town of Boston, and occupied a space of ground nearly twelve 
miles in length. The English were strongly intrenched on 
Bunker's Hill and Roxbury Neck, and defended by the float- 
ing batteries in Mystic river and a ship-of-war that lay be- 
tween Boston and Charlestown. The American general deter- 
mined, after a long blockade, to force General Howe, who had 
succeeded General Gage in the chief command, either to meet 
the provincials in the field or to evacuate Boston, and with this 
intention he opened his batteries on the east and west sides 
of the town, (March 2, 1776,) and continued the bombard- 
ment without interruption. Howe, finding that the place was 
no longer tenable, resolved, if possible, to drive the colonial 
troops from their works. A vigorous attack was meditated on 

2N 



446 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




SIEGE OF BOSTON. 



Dorchester Neck, which they had fortified with great care, and 
every thing was in readiness, when a dreadful storm prevented 
the British from making the attempt ; and next day it was 
thought advisable to desist from it altogether. Nothing re- 
mained, therefore, but to evacuate the town. The Americans, 
however, did not annoy the English in their retreat, as they 
knew that it was in their power to reduce the place to ashes — 
a loss which the labour of many years and the profits of the 
most successful trade could not easily have repaired. For this 
reason they allowed them to embark with great deliberation, 
and to take with them whatever might be thought necessary for 
their voyage, together with as many of the inhabitants as chose 
rather to leave their country than expose themselves to the con- 
sequences of theii attachment to the royal cause. After re- 
maining for some time in Nantasket road, the whole fleet set 
sail ; and the army of the Americans proceeded in divisions to 
New York, which Washington supposed to be the place to 
which the English were gone. 

During these transactions at Boston, events of considerablf 
importance took place in other parts of America. The for- 



OPENING OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION. 



44: 




DEATH OF MONiaOMEET. 



tresses of Crown Point and Ticonderoga having been occupied 
by the provincials some time before, the reduction of Canada 
appeared to be more obvious and easy. Three thousand men. 
under the command of Generals Schuyler and Montgomery, 
were sent by the orders of the congress into that country, 
where they were opposed by the English general Carleton, an 
officer of much experience and activity. The provincials laid 
siege to St. John's, and the British commander made haste to 
relieve the place. But he was attacked by the provincials with 
a superior force while yet on his march, and, being utterly de- 
feated, was compelled to retire to Quebec. The garrison of St. 
John's surrendered themselves prisoners of war ; Montreal was 
taken by General Montgomery; Arnold penetrated into Canada 
with a strong body of Americans during all the severity of win- 
ter ; and, after uniting his forces with those of Montgomery, 
he endeavoured to take Quebec by surprise. But, after a des- 
perate engagement, in which Montgomery was killed, together 
with the best part of his officers, the provincials were over- 
powered, and forced to abandon the attempt. Arnold, having 
removed to some distance from Qu6bec, was enabled, by the 



448 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



kindness of the people, to endure the hardships of an encamp- 
ment in the midst of winter, and under a climate to the rigour 
of which his soldiers were but little accustomed. Notwithstand- 
ing his defeat, he was created a brigadier by the unanimous 
voice of the congress. General Sullivan then took the com- 
mand of the provincial troops. The Americans were defeated 
with great loss at the Three Rivers, and were finally obliged to 
retire from Canada. 

In Virginia, the war was carried on with great activity, and 
was in general favourable to the American interest. 




LORD PEECT. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1776. 



449 




GENERAL WAYNE. 





with 



CAMPAIGN OF 177G. 

FTER all attempts towards 
a reconciliation with Great 
Britain appeared to be fruit- 
less, the congress proceeded 
jil u ^\\% vsi in full assembly to renounce 
IP their allegiance to the sovereign of 
that country, and to declare that the 
United Colonies were independent of 
all authority in Europe. 
:— After the declaration of independ- 
ence, the Americans had to strug^gle 
^reat difiBculties in supporting their pretensions. The 
67 2 .\ 2 



450 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




WASHINGTON REFUSIN8 TO REOBITE HOWE'S LETTER. 



king's standard was erected in North Carolina, by Colonel 
McDonald ; and Charleston, the capital of South Carolina, was 
furiously attacked by a fleet from England. McDonald, how- 
ever, being met by the provincial general Moore, was totally 
defeated by that officer ; and the bombardment from the ships, 
though violent and continued for a long time, produced no great 
effect upon the town. 

But as the chief part of the colonial troops was assembled in 
the division of New York, under Washington, their commander, 
and as that province was most accessible by sea, the English 
resolved to make an attempt upon it with all their forces. Six 
ships of the line, and thirty frigates, with many smaller vessels, 
composed the fleet. It was under the orders of Lord Howe, 
who had arrived from Europe some time before, and the land 
army was commanded by Sir William Howe, his brother. Soon 
after his appearance off the coast. Lord Howe sent a letter to 
the American commander-in-chief, addressed to " George Wash- 
ington, Esq." ; but the general refused to open it, as the address 
was not in a style corresponding to the dignity of the situation 
which he held. Another letter was sent directed to " George 



CAMPAIGN OF 1776. 451 

Washington, &c. &c. &c."; but this also was refused. "It did 
not acknowledge," he said, " the public character with which 
he was invested by the congress, and in no other character 
would he have any intercourse with his lordship." The com- 
munication, however, to which these letters gave rise, afforded 
the British an opportunity of exerting themselves in order to 
effect a reconciliation. With this view, the American general 
was informed, that Lord Howe was invested with full powers to 
receive the submission of the colonists, and to reinstate them 
in the favour of their lawful sovereign ; but Washington de- 
clared, that these powers appeared to consist in nothing but 
granting pardons ; and that as the provincials, in defending 
their rights, had been guilty of no crime, they required no for- 
giveness. 

Both sides, therefore, prepared to terminate their disputes by 
arms ; and hostilities began as soon as the English troops were 
collected at their appointed stations. The character of the 
forces which were now about to engage was very different. The 
British were numerous, regularly disciplined, and accustomed 
to military operations ; while the Americans were inferior in 
numbers, and inexperienced, newly embodied, and not well pro- 
vided with artillery and ammunition. Washington marked the 
condition of his army with very great concern. It amounted 
to no more than eighteen thousand effective men ; while that of 
the English was nearly twenty-five thousand strong. As the 
American government had no established revenue, and as the 
sources of their commerce were completely dried up, the diffi- 
culties which the general had to encounter were such as no hu- 
man ability and perseverance could easily surmount. 

Notwithstanding the difficulties which Wasnington had to en- 
counter, he maintained his positions, and availed himself of 
every circumstance which might encourage his troops or im- 
prove their discipline. He animated them by his exhortations 
and example ; he told them that the day was approaching which 
would decide whether the American people were to be freemen 
or slaves ; and he informed them, that the happiness of myriads 
yet unborn depended on their courage and conduct. He pro- 
mised rewards to those who should distinguish themselves by 
ucts of extraordinary bravery, and threatened such as were 
doubtful or dilatory with the utmost severity of punishment, if 



452 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

they should desert the cause in which they were engaged. The 
time was at hand when the eflFect of these exhortations was to 
be ascertained. In the month of August, A. D. 1776, the 
English made a descent upon Long Island, with forty pieces of 
cannon, and under cover of their ships. On a peninsula, 
formed by the East river and Cowan's cove, and constituting 
part of the same island, lay Putnam, the American general, 
strongly fortified, and waiting the approach of the king's troops. 
Between the armies there was a range of hills, the principal 
pass through which was near a place called Flatbush. At this 
place, the Hessians, forming the centre of the royalists, took 
their station. The left wing, under the orders of General Grant, 
was close upon the shore, and the right, commanded by General 
Clinton, Earl Percy, and Lord Cornwallis, and comprehending 
the chief strength of the British forces, approached the oppo- 
site coast of Plat Land. Putnam had directed that all the 
passes should be secured by strong detachments of the provin- 
cial troops. The orders to this purpose, though not disobeyed, 
were not complied with to the extent which that general required ; 
and one road through the hills, of the utmost importance, was 
entirely neglected ; an oversight which was speedily communi- 
cated to the British, and which they were too wise not to im- 
prove to their advantage. On the evening of the 26th, General 
Clinton drew off the right wing of the English army, in order 
to gain the heights. Nearly about daybreak, he reached the 
pass undiscovered by the enemy, and immediately took posses- 
sion of it. The detachment under Lord Percy followed, and 
when the day appeared, the royalists advanced into the level 
country between the hills and Brooklyn, a village situated on 
the peninsula, where the Americans were encamped. Without 
loss of time, Clinton fell upon the rear of the provincials, and 
the Hessians attacking them in front at the same instant, neither 
valour nor skill could save them from a defeat. Inspirited, 
however, by their generals, and the presence of Washington, 
they continued the engagement for a while, and fought with all 
the bravery of men whom the love of freedom animates to deeds 
of heroism ; but pressed by superior numbers, and thrown into 
confusion, they gave way on every side, and fled with the utmost 
precipitation to the woods. Nor was this the only part of the 
army which suffered; the right wing, engaged with General 




a£N£BAL PUTNAM. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1776. 



455 




BJSIREAI CBOM LONQ ISLAND. 



Grant, experienced a similar fate. And thus, in one fatal day, 
the Americans lost four thousand of their best troops, and, what 
was of more value to them, their confidence of success ; a con- 
fidence which till now had supported them amidst all their suf- 
ferings, and had established in their minds a resolution of part- 
ing with their liberty only with their lives. In this engagement 
the British fought with extraordinary valour, and their antago- 
nists, though less experienced in the art of war, were equally 
distinguished by the steadiness of their conduct. Of a regiment 
consisting of young gentlemen from Maryland, the greater part 
was cut in pieces, and not one of those who survived had escaped 
without a Avound. 

After the defeat at Brooklyn, and the evacuation of Long 
Island by the Americans, proposals for an accommodation were 
made by Lord Howe. But as his lordship was not authorized 
to treat with the congress as a legal assembly, he invited such 
of its members as were desirous of peace to a private conference. 
To this invitation the congress replied, that as they were the 



456 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




LORD HOiTE. 



representatives of the free and independent states of America, 
it was not possible for them to send any of their number, to 
confer with the English commanders in their individual capacity ; 
but that, as it was exceedingly to be wished that an accommo- 
dation should take place on reasonable terms, they would direct 
a committee to receive the proposals of the British government. 
Accordingly they nominated for this purpose, the celebrated Dr. 
Franklin, Mr. J. Adams, and Mr. Rutledge, all zealous and 
faithful in the cause of liberty. But notwithstanding the dis- 
position of Lord Howe, which was certainly towards peace, and 
the late misfortunes of the provincial troops, the conference was 
altogether ineffectual : his lordship would not acknowledge the 
deputies as the commissioners of a free people ; and the depu- 
ties would not treat with him on any other condition. It was 
resolved therefore, on both sides, to prosecute the war with all 
their vigour and their utmost resources. 

The provincial army under the orders of Washington was 
now stationed in the vicinity of New York. They had erected 



CAMPAIGN OF 1776. 457 

many batteries near the place, and from these they kept up an 
incessant fire upon the British ships. Between the armies lay 
the East river, which the royalists, for some days, had mani- 
fested a desire to cross. Accordingly, after the fleet had si- 
lenced the American batteries, they landed on the opposite 
shore, at Kipp's Bay, nearly three miles distant from New 
York ; and marching rapidly towards the city, they forced the 
enemy to abandon their works, and to retreat with the utmost 
precipitation. Leaving the town itself, and their baggage, pro- 
visions, and military stores, in possession of the British, the 
Americans withdrew to the northern part of the island, where 
the chief strength of their forces was collected. Here Wash- 
ington determined to wait the approach of the king's troops, and 
in the mean time, he used every method in his power to restore 
the courage of his soldiers, and elevate their fallen hopes. He 
had long ago formed that plan of operations which is usually 
successful against an invading army ; though with the intention 
of deviating from it as circumstances might require. It was 
his design at present, not to risk a general engagement, but to 
harass the English by continual skirmishes, by cutting off their 
supplies, and exhausting their patience. The object of the 
British general was exactly the contrary of this ; his safety, as 
well as his success, lay in bringing the Americans speedily to 
action, and in terminating the war, if possible, by a single 
blow. The fortune of the royalists was now predominant. In 
almost every attack the superiority of regular discipline had 
been shown. Washington had been forced to quit his strong 
position at Kingsbridge, in New York Island, and had saved his 
army by retiring towards the main land of Connecticut. He 
was followed by the English general as soon as the troops could 
be landed, and the proper reinforcements had arrived. 

After some ineffectual skirmishing, both armies met at a place 
called the White Plains ; the royalists began the assault, and 
made such an impression on the American lines that Washing- 
ton was compelled again to retreat. He withdrew in good or- 
der, and occupied an advantageous post at a considerable dis- 
tance from that which he had just abandoned. But Sir William 
Howe, finding himself unable to bring on a general action, re- 
linquished the pursuit, and employed his troops- during the rest 
of the campaign, in reducing and taking possession of the forts 
58 L 




SIR HENRY CLINTON. 



which the enemy still retained in the vicinity of New York. In 
this he succeeded to his utmost wish ; the Jerseys were laid 
open to the incursions of the British forces, and if the Americans 
had not seized the boats, and removed them to a distance, Phila- 
delphia itself must have fallen into the hands of the royal army. 
In other parts of the continent, the success of the British was 
equally great. Sir Henry Clinton took possession of Rhode 
Island without losing a man. The American fleet under Com- 
modore Hopkins was obliged to remain in the river Providence, 
entirely useless. In Canada, General Burgoyne, who had al- 
ready distinguished himself against the provincials, and forced 
them to retreat across Lake Champlain to Crown Point, ordered 



CAMPAIGN OF 1776. 459 

a number of ships to be built ; and attacking those of the re- 
publicans, commanded by Arnold, defeated them with great 
slaughter ; compelling them to run their vessels ashore, and to 
set them on fire. The consequence of this disaster was, that 
the garrison of Crown Point, having destroyed or carried off 
their provisions and military stores, retired to Ticonderoga. 

In the midst of these calamitous events, the spirit of Wash- 
ington remained unbroken. Though his soldiers had deserted him 
in great numbers, and though Charles Lee, one of the ablest of the 
provincial generals, had been taken prisoner, he never despaired 
of success. He had frequently written to the congress, and 
represented to that body the condition of his army. It was 
originally composed of a loose militia, and of volunteers from the 
different provinces, once full of patriotism, and eager to engage ; 
but now, dispirited by misfortune, and ready to abandon their 
general on the first appearance of the king's troops. In addi- 
tion to this, the time during which the militia were bound to 
serve had almost expired. The congress, therefore, determined 
to recruit the army, by offering a bounty in land to all those 
who would enrol their names, and pledge themselves to continue 
in the field during the remainder of the war. Their efforts 
were nobly seconded by the zeal and activity of the commander- 
in-chief. He kept his troops constantly employed; and being 
successful in many of the skirmishes in which they were engaged, 
and reinforced by numbers of their countrymen, the soldiers be- 
gan to resume their wonted courage, and to be animated with 
better hopes. When the English approached Philadelphia, the 
American general had thrown himself into that city, and 
strengthened it by every method in his power. The royal 
army now lay in cantonments at some distance from the place; 
they occupied a great extent of country, and one of the divi- 
sions, consisting of the Hessians in the king's service, was sta- 
tioned at Trenton, about thirty miles from the American capital. 
This division Washington resolved to attack, and, if possible, to 
surprise. Accordingly, he put himself at the head of a body 
of his troops; and after crossing the Delaware and marching 
all night, with the utmost expedition which the roads would 
allow, he fell upon the enemy, who had not the slightest intelli- 
gence of his approach, and routed them with great slaughter. 
Colonel Rawle, who commanded the royalists in that quarter, did 



460 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




WASHINGTON OBOSSINQ IH£ SELAWABE. 

every thing wliich could be expected from an officer at once 
brave and accustomed to military operations; but the attack 
was sudden and impetuous, and directed by Washington him- 
self ; the Hessians gave way on all sides ; their artillery was 
seized, and one thousand of their best troops remained prison- 
ers of war. 

Some of the colonial reinforcements having at length arrived, 
the provincial army not only increased in numbers, but im- 
proved in courage and zeal. Emboldened by his success, 
Washington resolved to leave Philadelphia, and to make another 
attempt against the British forces. In consequence of this de- 
termination, he advanced with great secrecy towards Maiden- 
head-town, situated between Trenton and Princeton, where 
three regiments, under Colonel Mawhood, had taken post ; and, 
attacking the royalists on their march, he threw them into con- 
fusion, and obliged them to retreat with considerable loss. The 
British troops, astonished at the exertions of the American 
commander, whose affairs they supposed to be desperate, with- 
drew towards Brunswick, in order to prevent that town, and the 
stores which it contained, from falling into the hands of the 
provincial army. Washington lost no time in availing himself 
of their retreat. He divided his troops into small bodies, which, 
though dispersed over an extensive country, could be united 




2o2 



CAMPAIGN OF 1776. 



463 



without difficulty ; and, by his activity, vigilance, and skill, he 
soon regained possession of all the important places. 

Thus terminated the campaign of 1776, and not altogether 
unfavourably to the American interest : for though the provin- 
cial troops had often been worsted, and still more frequently 
obliged to retreat, yet they prosecuted their design of harassing 
the enemy "with great success ; and while the royalists kept 
possession of New York, they were constrained to act with as 
much circumspection as if Washington and the whole force of 
the colonists had besieged them in that city. 




OBMERAL CHARLES L E B. 



464 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GENERAL HOWE. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1777. 




|HE next campaign opened with considerable indi- 
cations of vigour on the part of Sir William Howe. 
After a number of predatory excursions, in which 
some forts were reduced and magazines destroyed, 
that general resolved to make an attempt on Phi- 
ladelphia. It was at first thought that this could be done by 
marching through the Jerseys ; but Washington, now in posses- 
sion of the open country, and strongly reinforced, had taken 
his measures so effectually that it was declared to be impracti- 
cable. It was therefore determined to approach Philadelphia 



CAMPAIGN OF 1777. 465 

by sea. The expedition, led by the British general in person, 
sailed on the 23d of July from Sandy Hook ; on the 29th, the 
troops arrived at the mouth of the Delaware ; but having re- 
ceived intelligence, that the navigation of that river was effec- 
tually obstructed, they proceeded to Chesapeake bay, in Mary- 
land, from which they could in a short time reach the capital of 
Pennsylvania. At length, sailing up the Elk as far as was prac- 
ticable, the royal army, to the number of eighteen thousand 
effective men, landed without opposition. On the news of their 
arrival in the Chesapeake, Washington gave immediate orders 
for all the colonial troops to join him without delay ; and ad- 
vanced by rapid marches, to check the progress of Howe. His 
exertions, however, for that purpose, were not effectual ; and it 
was perceived, that a battle, which would decide the fate of the 
American capital, was unavoidable. The royal army had 
pushed forward towards the Brandywine, on the opposite side 
of which the provincials were stationed ; the river was fordable, 
and could therefore present no effective obstacle to a general 
engagement. This was ardently sought by the English com- 
mander ; and, in his present circumstances, it was not avoided 
by Washington, On the morning of the 11th of September, 
the king's troops advanced towards Chadd's Eord ; various ma- 
noeuvres and skirmishing there took place, and with varied suc- 
cess ; till about four in the evening, when the action began be- 
tween the main strength of the contending forces. The right 
wing of the Americans was thrown into confusion at the very 
commencement of the attack ; and, before Washington could 
lead his battalions to its support, the whole line gave way ; the 
rout became general, and night alone saved the provincials from 
a total defeat. 

This victory, on the part of the British, opened their way to 
Philadelphia. Accordingly, a short time after it was gained. 
Sir William Howe took possession of that city ; but the troops, 
during their march, were incessantly annoyed by Washington ; 
who hung upon their rear, cut off their detached parties, and 
showed them, that though he had been compelled to retreat, he 
was not overcome. In the whole conduct of this extraordinary 
man, we are forced to admire the prudence, perseverance, and 
activity which marked his character. He had been repulsed in 
almost every attack where a large body of the provincials had 
59 



466 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




BATTLB OF GERMANIOWN, 



been engaged with the enemy ; his troops had deserted him in 
great numbers, and on the most important occasions ; and he 
had frequently been distressed by the want of military stores ; 
yet, notwithstanding these adverse cii'cumstances, he made head 
against an army of regular troops, commanded by a general of 
acknowledged ability, well disciplined, and provided with all the 
means of successful warfare. No sooner had the English gene- 
ral taken possession of Philadelphia with a part of his forces, 
and stationed the rest at Germantown, than Washington formed 
the resolution of attacking the division at the latter place. In 
this attempt also he was unfortunate; the British had early 
notice of his approach ; and he was obliged to retire with very 
considerable loss. But such was his unconquerable spirit, and 
so firm his conviction that the measures which he pursued 
would at length bring the war to a favourable issue, that, in his 
letters to the congress, he exhorted them to perseverance; and 
rejected every ofi'er towards an accommodation, but that which 
acknowledged the independence of the United States. The 
English general, now in possession of Philadelphia, employed 
himself for some time in taking or destroying the forts on the 
Delaware. The principal of these were Mud Island and Red- 
bank. Aided by three ships of the line, and well supported by 



CAMPAIGN OF 1777. 



467 




BATTLE OP REDBANK. 



the officers who executed his commands, he, after a sturdy re- 
sistance from the garrison at Redbank, at length succeeded in 
reducing the forts ; and many of the ships belonging to the pro- 
vincials either fell into his hands, or were driven ashore and 
burnt by their possessors. 

In the northern provinces, the campaign wore an aspect less 
friendly to the royal interests. An expedition to New England 
had been projected by the ministry in Europe, as the most 
effectual scheme for reducing the colonies to obedience. An 
army of seven thousand chosen troops had been put under the 
orders of General Burgoyne : these were to be assisted by 
levies from Quebec ; and means were used to engage the In- 
dians of Canada in the service of Great Britian. The first at 
tempts of Burgoyne were as successful as the condition of his 
army entitled the ministry to expect. The Indians, gained by 
presents, or stimulated by the hope of plunder, joined him in 
considerable bodies ; and to the honour of the British com- 
mander, we must add, that, in his first address to those new 
allies, he exhorted them to kill none but such as appeared in 
arms against them, and to spare the w^omen and children wboiti 



t68 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




KUINS OP FOET IICONDBEOaA, 



the fortune of war might put into their hands. On the 2d of 
July, the English army encamped on both sides of Lake Cham- 
plain, at a short distance from Ticonderoga. To this strong 
fortress the Americans had retired at the end of the preceding 
year ; and now it was garrisoned with about three thousand men, 
and defended by the provincial general St. Clair. The ap- 
proaches of the British were rapid and decisive. Soon after 
their appearance before the American works, they took posses- 
sion of Sugar-hill ; an eminence which overlooked the fortifica- 
tions, and enabled them to place their batteries to great ad- 
vantage, but which the enemy had imagined it was impossible 
to ascend. On the 5th, every step had been taken in order to 
render the investment complete. St. Clair, however, conscious 
of his inability to defend the place, and anxious at the same 
time to prevent the troops which he commanded from surren- 
dering themselves prisoners of war, abandoned the works, and 
retreated over Mount Independence to Charlestown, and thence 
to Skeensborough, in the vicinity of Lake George. Previous 



CAMPAIGN OF 1777. 469 




GENERAL ST. CLAIIt. 



to his departure, he had ordered the baggage and military stores 
to bo sent by water to the same place ; but the vessels which 
were employed for that purpose were attacked by the English 
ships, and either captured or rendered unfit for service ; and, 
in consequence of this disaster, the Americans set fire to their 
boats and fortifications at Skeensborough. On land the royal- 
ists were equally successful ; Colonel Francis and a body of 
the provincial troops were defeated with great slaughter by 
General Reidesel ; and, by the skilful manoeuvres of Burgoyne, 
St, Clair was prevented from reaching Fort Anne. An engage- 
ment then took place in the woods, in which the Americans 
were routed, and compelled to retire to Fort Edward on the 
Hudson. 

The loss of Ticonderoga was one for which the United States 
were not prepared, and which was severely felt through all the 
colonies. Neither the strength of the invading army nor the 
weakness of the garrison appears to have been understood. It 
was universally believed, that the whole force of Canada did not 
amount to six thousand men ; and, therefore, no adequate 
measures had been taken, in order to enable St. Clair and the 
troops under his command to resist such an army as advanced 
against them. 

2P 



470 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GENERAL STARKE. 



Burgoyne, elated with his success, and hitherto uninstructed 
by adverse fortune, proceeded with great ostentation of zeal and 
activity to finish the campaign. After waiting at Skeensbo- 
rough for the arrival of tents and provisions, and spending a 
long time in clearing the ground, in order to facilitate the pas- 
sage of his troops, he reached Fort Edward about the end of 
July. In the interval afforded by this delay. General Schuyler 
recruited the shattered battalions of the Americans, and, uniting 
the parties which were stationed in different quarters, convinced 
the British that much was still to be done. The royal army 
now suffered greatly from the want of provisions. They had 
attempted to seize the magazines at Bennington ; but the de- 
tachments under Colonels Baum and Breyman, who were em- 
ployed for that purpose, were utterly defeated by General 
Starke, to whom the defence of the place was intrusted. The 



CAMPAIGN OF 1777. 473 

expedition on the Mohawk river, undertaken by Colonel St. 
Leger, had likewise failed. Notwithstanding these misfortunes, 
however, Burgoyne, fatally for the cause in which he was en- 
gaged, continued to advance ; and having collected with great 
care and indefatigable exertion provisions for thirty days, he 
encamped on the heights and plains of Saratoga, resolved to 
decide by one vigorous effort the fortune of the campaign. On 
the 17th of September, the English army was only four miles 
distant from that of the provincials, commanded by General 
Gates. This officer, leaving his camp in the islands, had been 
joined by all the troops destined for the northern provinces, and, 
marching towards Stillwater with the utmost despatch, showed 
no inclination to avoid an engagement. Accordingly, when 
the British appeared, without waiting for the assault, he attacked 
their centre, while Arnold, who commanded on the left of the 
provincials, made head against the right of the enemy. A 
fierce encounter then ensued ; and, had not the artillery arrived 
during the hottest of the action and checked the Americans, 
the discipline of the British must have yielded to the valour 
and impetuosity of the colonial troops. In this battle, the roy- 
alists lost only three hundred men, while fifteen hundred of their 
antagonists were either killed or wounded ; yet the English 
generals were astonished at the resolution which the Americans 
had displayed, and began to anticipate, with sorrow, the final 
issue of their exertions. 

The condition of the army under Burgoyne was now almost 
desperate. Their stock of provisions was nearly exhausted ; 
the Indians, their allies, who had marked the service with 
bloodshed and cruelty, withdrew from them in great numbers, 
and, to complete the mortifications of the general, he had re- 
ceived no intelligence from Clinton, whose assistance or co-ope- 
ration he had long expected. After some days, however, a let- 
ter from that officer arrived, informing Burgoyne that he 
intended to make a diversion in his favour ; but, as this aid was 
distant and dubious, the communication of the design had little 
effect in raising the spirits of the soldiers, or animating their 
general with confidence. 

In their present distressful circumstances, it was obvious that 
nothing but a vic4;ory could save the royalists from the igno- 
miny of surrendering at discretion. Accordingly, on the 7th 
60 2p2 



474 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GENERAL GATES. 



of October, the English general moved with his whole strength 
towards the camp of the provincials. His design was quickly 
perceived by Gates, the American commander, who resolved to 
attack him without loss of time. The assault was impetuous 
and bloody ; but the English, resisting for a while, at last gave 
way, and Eraser, one of their ablest generals, was killed on the 
spot. Arnold pressed hard on the right, where Burgoyne com- 
manded in person ; and though the king's troops in that quarter 
displayed their wonted courage, the British were compelled to 
retreat, and, with the utmost difficulty, regained their camp. 
They were pursued to their intrenchments by Arnold and fu- 
riously assaulted ; but that officer having received a dangerous 
wound at the very moment when his division was entering the 
lines, the Americans were- forced to retire. On the left, the 
provincials were still more successful. The Germans vvere 
routed with great loss ; Colonel Breyman fell, and all the 



CAMPAIGN OF 1777. 



476 




BURGOTNE'S ENCAMPMENT ON THE HUDSON. 

artillery and baggage remained in the hands of the colonial 
army. 

This was the most fatal disaster which the English had expe- 
rienced since the attack at Bunker's Hill. The number of 
killed and wounded, both of the Germans and British, was 
very great; but the chief misfortune was, that the Americans 
were now enabled so to arrange their posts as to enclose the 
army and effectually to prevent their escape. There was only 
one road by which it was possible for them to retreat. It was, 
therefore, resolved to repair the bridges on the way to Fort 
Edward ; to decamp suddenly and march towards that place in 
the night, and, forcing the passages of the Hudson, to effect a 
union with Sir Henry Clinton and the troops under his com- 
mand. It was resolved also that the baggage should be left, 
and that the soldiers should carry their provisions attached to 
their knapsacks. All these resolutions indicate the extreme 
necessity to which the British were reduced. The design, how- 
ever was found to be impracticable. Intelligence was received 



476 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




BUEGOTNE'S EEIEEAT ON THE HUDSON. 



that the Americans had erected strong batteries at the fords ; 
that they had taken possession of an eminence between Fort 
Edward and Fort George, from which, it was said, they coiQd 
annoy the army on their march; that their numbers were daily 
increasing; and that the fresh troops, as well as their asso- 
ciates, were animated with all the zeal of men ardent in the 
cause of freedom and their country. The state of the royal 
army and of its general was now truly deplorable. Burgoyne 
himself had projected the expedition. An officer of tried abili- 
ties had been removed to make way for him; and at the be- 
ginning of the campaign, his endeavours had been followed 
with success. But a mournful reverse of circumstances had 
taken place ; he was deserted by his allies ; his provisions were 
exhausted; he was enclosed by an enemy rejoicing in his mis- 
fortunes and anticipating his fall. "In these circumstances," 
says he in a letter to Lord George Germain, "I called a coun- 
cil of all the generals, field-officers, and captains commanding 
corps, and, by their unanimous concurrence and advice, I was 
induced to open a treaty with Major-general Gates." In con- 



CAMPAIGN OF 1777. 



477 




GENERAL BUIUiOTNE. 



sequence of this treaty, the British forces, to the number of six 
thousand men, laid down their arms, having pledged themselves 
not to serve in America during the war, and stipulated that 
they should be permitted to return to their native country. 
Such was the agreement, and to this agreement the congress 
ought unquestionably to have adhered ; but when the trans- 
ports appeared in the harbour of Boston, and the troops were 
preparing to embark, the American rulers, suspecting that they 
might be employed against their interests in other parts of the 
continent, would not permit them to remove till the treaty 
should be ratified by the English cabinet. The surrender of 
Burgoyne led to the immediate evacuation of Ticonderoga and 
Mount Independence ; and the provincials saw themselves once 
more sole masters of the north. 



478 



. INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GENERAL HENET LEE. 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1778 AND 1789. 



HE congress, however, not satis- 
fied with the exertions of the 
provinces in behalf of their 
rights, had recourse to the aid 
of foreign powers. In the he- 
ginning of the year 1778, they 
entered into an alliance with 
the French, who, as the rivals 
of the British, and smarting 
with the loss of their possessions in Canada, eagerly embraced 
the proposals of the American states. On the 6th of February, 
the articles of agreement between the two nations were formally 
signed. It was declared in these articles, 1. That the princi- 
pal end of the treaty was to support, in an effectual manner, 
the independency of the united colonies ; 2. That if Great 
Britain should, in consequence of the treaty, proceed to hostili- 
ties against France, the two nations would assist each other afl 




CAMPAIGNS OF 1778 AND 1789. 47f^ 

circumstances might require ; 3. That if those places in North 
America, still subject to the British crown, should be conquered 
by the United States, they should either be confederated with 
them or subjected to their jurisdiction ; 4. That if any of the 
islands in the West Indies should be taken by the French, they 
should be considered as the property of that nation ; 5. That 
no formal treaty with Great Britain should be concluded by 
the French or Americans, acting separately, and that both par- 
ties would continue in arms till the independence of the United 
States should be acknowledged ; 6. That such powers of Europe 
or America as had received injuries from Great Britain should 
be invited to engage in the common cause ; 7. That the United 
States guarantied to France all the possessions in the West 
Indies which she might be able to conquer ; and that France, 
in her turn, guarantied the unconditional independence of the 
United States, and their supreme authority over every country 
which they possessed, or which they might acquire during the 
continuance of the war. 

When this treaty was notified to the court of London, it pro- 
duced an immediate declaration of war against the French. 
The English parliament, in their address to the king, expressed 
their resolution of adhering to him in all his endeavours to 
subdue the revolted colonies, and promised to assist him with 
the whole strength of the empire. The address, however, was 
not voted without a considerable difference of opinion. The 
members in opposition loudly affirmed that the war was equally 
tyrannical and unjust ; that the ministry, by their ignorance 
and ill success, had forfeited the confidence of the British na- 
tion ; that the Americans were struggling for independence. 
and would at last attain it ; and that every attempt to compel 
them to obedience would assuredly be fruitless. Of the injus- 
tice of the war, from its commencement to the present time. 
the ministry themselves, by their wavering and indecisive mea- 
sures, appear to have been conscious. They now introduced 
into parliament a bill for reconciling the differences between the 
Americans and Great Britain ; and should the terms which 
they offered be rejected by the United States, they declared 
their fixed and unalterable purpose of reducing them to com- 
pliance by force of arms. Commissioners were therefore dt*- 
epatched to the congress, in order to communicate to them thv 



480 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

proposals of the English administration ; but, as they arrived 
immediately after the surrender of Burgoyne and the conclu- 
sion of the treaty with France, they were received with the 
utmost indifference, and, in many places, with the utmost con- 
tempt. The general answer was, that the day of reconciliation 
was past, and that Great Britain, by her tyranny and haughti- 
ness, had extinguished all filial regard in the breasts of the 
American people. The congress resolved without delay, that, 
as a political body, they would not receive the commissioners 
till their independence was acknowledged ; that whoever made 
a separate agreement with Britain was an enemy to his coun- 
try ; and that it was the duty of all the states to exert them- 
selves to the utmost in recruiting the army, or in adding to the 
number of its battalions. 

In the mean time, the season for action was approaching. 
While the congress was yet deliberating on the answer which 
they should give to the proposals from England, Sir Henry 
Clinton, now raised to the chief command, evacuated Philadel- 
phia. On his march from that place, he was followed and 
harassed by the provincial troops, whom Washington had di- 
rected to obstruct his progress ; but Lee, the American general, 
having failed in an attempt to seize the baggage of the royal- 
ists, they effected their retreat, were conveyed on board the 
ships, and joined their countrymen at New York. Eor his mis- 
conduct on this occasion, as well as his insolence towards the 
commander-in-chief, Lee was afterwards tried by a court-mar- 
tial, and sentenced to a temporary suspension from his office as 
a general in the army — a punishment which, though slight, 
operated with a powerful effect throughout the colonial forces. 

While the British ships were employed in transporting the 
troops from Sandy Hook to New York, intelligence was re- 
ceived that a strong fleet, under the orders of Count D'Estaign, 
had arrived from France. It consisted of twelve ships of the 
line, besides frigates, and had six thousand marines, or soldiers, 
on board. To oppose this force, the British had only six ships 
of the line — three of fifty guns, and a few vessels of smaller 
size ; yet they posted themselves so advantageously before the 
entrance into New York, that the French admiral thought it 
would be hazardous to attack them, and prudently declined an 
engagement. The arrival of foreign succours was the occasion 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1778 AND 1789. 



481 

















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mg 


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h 








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^'i-'^W^aN /i//Snmi 


w^mr^^^m 


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COUNT D'ESTAIO.V. 



of much joy to the inhabitants of the United States. The 
congress immediately wrote to Washington, instructing him to 
co-operate with D'Estaign, and authorizing him to employ the 
militia from New Hampshire to New Jersey, as well as the mi- 
litia of these provinces, for whatever undertakings he might 
judge to be necessary. But the success of the allied powers 
was not equal to the magnitude of their preparations. An 
expedition was agreed on, and Sullivan, the American general, 
landed on Rhode Island with ten thousand men, resolved to lay 
siege to Newport, the capital of that state. But Pigot, to 

whom Sir Henry Clinton had intrusted the defence of the place, 
61 2q2 



482 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GENERAL SULLIVAN. 



had fortified himself so strongly that the Americans found it 
impossible to succeed without the aid of the fleet. D'Estaign, 
however, shattered by a storm, and dreading the approach of 
the English admiral, withdrew from the harbour and sailed for 
Boston, in order to refit. In consequence of his departure, 
Sullivan was obliged to retire, and, the garrison of Newport 
rushing forth and pressing hard upon him, the provincial troops 
were thrown into confusion, and with no little difficulty accom- 
plished their retreat. The conduct of D'Estaign at Rhode 
Island gave the highest ofience to the people of New England, 
who did not hesitate to express their doubts of the admiral's 
courage. It produced a quarrel between him and Sullivan, 
which Washington long attempted to heal ; and the resent- 
ment occasioned by these difi"erences, in the minds of thf 
French, contributed greatly to diminish their exertions in be- 
half of the colonies. 

The war was now prosecuted with varied success. The 
whole province of Georgia was reduced by the English. Caro 
lina was invaded, and Charleston, its principal city, had nearl;v 
fallen into the hands of the royalists. Several expeditions 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1778 AND 1789. 



48? 




GENERAL SCHUYLER. 



against the provinces in North America were likewise success- 
ful. On the other hand, the Spaniards, joining in the confede- 
racy against Britain, made an irruption into Florida, and took 
possession of that country without opposition. Not a few of 
the states of Europe contemplated the exertions of the Ameri- 
cans with a favourable eye. And the Indians who, at the in- 
stigation of the British, had molested the provinces by conti- 
nual depredations, were effectually and completely subdued by 
General Sullivan ; their villages were burnt, and their planta- 
tions destroyed ; so that when the invading army had quitted 
the district occupied by the savages, " there was not a house, 
nor a field of corn, nor a fruit tree left upon the ground ;" nor 
was there an Indian to be seen throughout the whole tract. 

During the whole of the American war, there appears to 
have been one capital and fatal error on the part of the British 
generals. They never collected their forces and advanced 
against the Americans with their whole strength, a mode of con- 
duct which would have brought the war to a point, and enabled 
their discipline and skill to operate with decisive and awful 



4S^ 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



execution against the rude valour of the provincial troops. On 
the contrary, they divided their forces into small bodies ; in- 
vaded the colonies in separate detachments ; gave the Ameri- 
cans every opportunity of harassing them and cutting off their 
supplies, and were finally constrained to yield to the perseve- 
rance and boldness of men inferior to them in military know- 
ledge, and almost destitute of those advantages which influence the 
success of military operations. This error of the British com- 
manders was perceived by Washington, and he availed himself 
of it. "From your accounts," says he to Schuyler, in a letter 
written after the fall of Ticonderoga, " General Burgoyne ap- 
pears to be pursuing that line of conduct which, of all others, 
is most favourable to us. I mean, acting in detachment. This 
conduct will certainly give room for enterprise on our side, and 
expose his parties to great hazard. Could we be so happy as 
to cut one of them off, though it should not exceed four, five, 
or six hundred men, it would inspirit the people and do away 
nuch of their anxiety." — MarsTialVs Life of Washington. 
fol. iii. p. 262. 




GEXEEAL MARl 




GENEEAL tlNCOi-M. 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1780 AND 178i 



487 




G ENER AL GREENE. 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1780 AND 1781, AND CLOSE 
OF THE WAR. 



^--==i:»^^^^^^N the year 1780, tlie war was effectually 
! .'■'^ J^^^ft transferred to the southern provinces. 
On the 19th of February, Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, who, in conjunction with Vice-admi- 
ral Arbuthnot, had left New York some 
^ time before, appeared off Charleston ; on 
c^ the 20th of March, the English squadron 
entered the harbour of that city; and on 
~" ""^ '" ■ the 29th of the same month, the troops 
effected a landing at Charleston Neck. The British then sum- 
moned the town ; but Lincoln, who commanded there, under the 




488 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

authority of the United States, expressed his resolution of de- 
fending the place. In framing his answer to the summons of 
the English general, he was influenced considerably by the ex- 
pectation of reinforcements and supplies from the neighbom-ing 
provinces ; these, however, came in very slowly ; and a body of 
militia which was proceeding to his relief was attacked and 
dispersed by Earl Cornwallis and Colonel Tarleton. The city 
was now invested in every direction ; Fort Sullivan was in pos- 
session of the royalists; and the preparations for a general 
assault were nearly completed ; when Lincoln, disappointed in 
the hope of obtaining succour from without, and indifferently 
supported by the troops under his command, agreed to the pro- 
posals of Clinton, and allowed the English, under General Les- 
lie, to march into the place. The loss of Charleston was a 
severe blow to the American interests ; twenty-four hundred 
and eighty-seven men were taken prisoners, besides a thousand 
sailors in arms ; and the quantity of ordnance and military 
stores which fell into the hands of the king's troops was not 
only great, but, in the present state of the colonial affairs, 
could with difficulty be spared. Such, however, was the dispo- 
sition of the provinces, and such the aversion to the English 
which the Americans had long cherished in their breasts, that, 
instead of being dispirited by their misfortunes, they united 
with greater cordiality and firmness, and prompted each other 
to more vigorous exertions. It is true, that, after the surren- 
der of Charleston, the English general issued a proclamation 
in which he exhorted the people to return to their allegiance, 
and threatened them with the utmost severity of punishment 
if they refused to • comply ; and that some individuals were 
found who petitioned to be admitted into the number and re- 
stored to the condition of British subjects. But these were 
regarded by the majority of their countrymen as the slaves of 
tyranny, and looked upon as unworthy to be enrolled under the 
same banner, or to fight in the same cause, with the champions 
of freedom. 

Amidst the ravages and desolation of war, the congress were 
not inattentive to the arts of peace. A committee of their 
number was instructed to examine the ground, as yet unoccu- 
pied, in the city of Philadelphia, and to choose a place for a 
Duilding where the representatives of the American people 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1780 AND 1781 



489 




K A N K [. I N. 



might assemble in a manner suitable to their dignity. They 
determined to erect a statue in honour of General Montgomery, 
who had fallen at Quebec, and authorized Dr. Franklin to agree 
with an artist of Paris for that purpose; they established a 
court in which all appeals from the admiralty to the United 
States, relating to captures, might be heard; they reformed 
the currency, and arranged their finances, so that the army 
might be regularly supplied with pay and clothing, and furnished 
with every thing which the general might require. They cele- 
brated the 4th of July, the anniversary of their independence, 
with great pomp ; and, on the same day, the first degrees in 
the arts were conferred by the provost and masters belonging 
to the college at Philadelphia. On this occasion, the members 
of congress, the chevalier de la Luzerne, minister plenipoten- 
tiary from the French king to the United States, together with 
other persons of distinction, were present. 

Not long after these transactions, a second fleet arrived at 

Rhode Island from France. This fleet, consisting of seven 

ships of the line, was under the orders of M. Ternay, and had 

on board six thousand men, well appointed and disciplined, and 

62 



490 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

led by Rochambeau, an officer of great talents and experience. 
A.S tbe aid which the Americans had now received was both un- 
expected and considerable, the joy which it occasioned was very 
great. The assembly at Rhode Island went in a body to con- 
gratulate the French general on his arrival, and he, in return, 
assured them that the troops which he commanded were only 
the first division of a larger force, which the king, his master, 
would send to their assistance. No sooner was it communi- 
cated to the British that the provincials had been strengthened 
by aid from Europe, than they formed a scheme in order to 
render it ineffectual. It was agreed by Sir Henry Clinton and 
the English admiral to make an attack by sea and land on the 
French vessels and the allied troops at Rhode Island. But 
Washington, having received intelligence of the design, passed 
the North River with an army of twelve thousand men, and, 
advancing by a rapid movement to Kingsbridge, threatened 
with a siege the town of New York, where Clinton commanded 
in person. This judicious and timely movement produced the 
desired efi'ect. The English general immediately altered his 
plan, and ordered his troops to disembark ; in consequence of 
which, the Americans likewise withdrew from Kingsbridge, and 
returned, by slow marches, to their former station. They were 
soon after followed by General Knyphausen, who attempted to 
surprise and cut off their advanced posts. In this, however, he 
was unsuccessful, and, having set fire to Springfield, and wasted 
the neighbouring country, he joined the main army at New 
York. 

About this time, General Gates, who had already distin- 
guished himself in the contest with Burgoyne, was appointed 
to the chief command of the provincial forces in South Caro- 
lina. He was opposed by the Earl Cornwallis and Colonel 
Tarleton, officers of high name and respectability, whose ser- 
vices, in the reduction of Charleston, we have already men- 
tioned. On the 16th of August, an action took place near 
Camden, between the royal army and that of the Americans. 
Prior to this action, the situation of the king's troops was ex- 
ceedingly critical. The position at Camden, though advan- 
tageous in some respects, was not well chosen for sustaining an 
attack. The force under Cornwallis did not exceed two thou- 
sand, while that of the provincials was more than double that 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1780 AND 1781. 



491 




BATTLE OF CAMDEN. 



number. The consequence of a defeat might be the loss oi 
South Carolina, and the effect of a victory the complete esta- 
blishment of the royal authority in that extensive province. 
General Gates was advancing with rapidity, and intelligence 
was received that it was the design of that commander to 
attack the British lines. 

In these circumstances, the skilland resolution of Cornwalli?, 
and the decisive bravery of Lord Rawdon, (afterward Earl Moira,) 
not only saved the English from defeat, but enabled them to 
gain a signal victory over the provincial troops. On the even- 
ing of the 15th, the British general, having resolved not to 
wait for the approach of the Americans, led out his small but 
determined band, in order to attack them ; and nearly at the 
same moment Gates advanced towards Camden with a similar 
intention. The two armies met in a narrow place, where the 
colonial troops could not avail themselves of their superior 
numbers. The English, perceiving the advantage which the 
ground afforded them, began the assault, and in a short time 
the action became general and warm. The onset of the royal- 



492 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN niSTORY. 




BARON DE KALB. 



ists, who advanced "with their bayonets fixed, was irresistibly 
impetuous ; the provincial militia, lately raised and strangers 
to regular service, first gave way, and the continental batta- 
lions, influenced by their example, yielded on all sides, and fled 
in the utmost disorder. Many of the colonists fell in this en- 
gagement, and more in the pursuit ; one thousand men were 
taken prisoners, and seven pieces of cannon, together with all 
the ammunition and stores of the provincial army, remained in 
the hands of the English. While the action was at the hottest, 
the baron do Kalb, a Prussian officer in the American service, 
distinguished himself by the heroic valour with which he fought ; 
he maintained his position against a furious assault of the 
enemy, and charged them at the head of the battalion which 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1780 AND 1781. 49S 

he commanded, till, overpowered by the English horse and 
wounded in eleven parts of his body, he gave his sword to a 
British officer who was near him, and resigned himself a pri- 
soner of war. From the royalists he received every attention 
which it was in their power to- bestow ; but his wounds were 
mortal, and in a few hours he expired. The last moments of 
this gallant soldier were spent in acknowledging the kindness 
of the English, and in declaring his unqualified approbation of 
the officers and men who had fought under his orders or fallen 
by his side. And the congress afterwards ordered a monument 
to be erected to his memory, in testimony of their sense of 
his worth, and their gratitude for his services. 

But, while the Americans were doomed to suffer by the power 
of their enemies, their misfortunes were nearly completed by 
the treachery of their friends. Arnold, a leading man in Phi- 
ladelphia, governor of that city in the name of the United 
States, and a general of conspicuous abilities, was induced to 
quit the service of his country and attach himself to the royal 
cause. Different motives have been assigned for this inglorious 
conduct. It has been said that he was unfriendly to the declara- 
tion of independence, and disgusted at the alliance with France ; 
and it has been urged, with greater plausibility, that the origin 
of his treachery is to be looked for in the fickleness of his tem- 
per and the unfortunate issue of the speculations in which he 
engaged. He had been accused by the government at Phila- 
delphia for the appropriation of goods belonging to the public 
to his own use ; and had been tried for certain actions, which, 
though not declared to be highly blamable, or injurious to the 
state, were, nevertheless, of a very suspicious nature. Those 
who have written of the American war have not informed us 
whether any attempts were made to corrupt his fidelity, or 
whether, by a proposal originating with himself, he betrayed 
the cause of freedom and the interests of his country. It is 
certain, however, that he had frequent interviews with Major 
Andr^ on board the Vulture, in North River ; and, when that 
officer was taken in the disguise of a peasant, several docu- 
ments of a public nature, in the handwriting- of Arnold, 
as well as a plan of the fortifications at West Point, where 
the traitor commanded, were found in his possession. From 
the documents alluded to, it is probable that the designs 

2R 



494 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




MAJOB ANDRE. 



of the American general were of an extensive nature, and that 
he meditated the scheme of reannexing the colonies to the Bri- 
tish empire. But, whether his designs were limited or exten- 
sive, they were all frustrated by the apprehension of Major 
Andre. This unfortunate gentleman, equally remarkable for 
the amiableness of his disposition and his attainments in clas- 
sical learning, was accidentally prevented from reaching the 
king's troops by means of the vessel which had conveyed him 
to the shore, and was discovered and seized on his way to New 
York. His case was referred by the commander-in-chief to a 
board of officers, consisting of General Greene, Lord Stirling, 
the marquis de la Fayette, Baron Steuben, two major-generals, 
and eight brigadiers. Before these distinguished persons, it 
A?as ascertained that he had often come on shore durins: the 
night, and conversed in a secret manner with General Arnold ; 
that he changed his dress within the American lines, and, under 
a fictitious name and a disguised habit, had passed the Ameri- 
can works at Stony and Verplank's Points ; that he was taken 
on the 23d of September by three American soldiers, Paulding, 
Vanvert, and Williams, when hastening to join the British ; 
and that certain papers, containing intelligence for the enemy, 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1780 AND 1781. 



ilo 




CAPTURE OP MAJOE ANDHE. 



were found in his boots. It was therefore determined by the 
court that he should be considered as a spy from the royal 
army, and that, in conformity with the law of nations and the 
practice of European countries, he ought to suffer death. In 
vain did Sir Henry Clinton, and Arnold himself, write to Gene- 
ral Washington and petition that his life might be spared. The 
provincials, galled by their late distresses, were inexorable, and 
Andre was hanged, on the 2d of October, at Tappan, in the 
division of New York. He met his fate with courage and 
composure; but regretted that the usages of war would not 
permit him to terminate his days in a more honourable manner, 
and to die, not as a criminal, but as a soldier. 

But, as his example was imitated by few of his countrymen, 
the defection of Arnold was of no great and permanent ad- 
vantage to the royal cause. The affairs of the British in the 
southern provinces at length began to decline. The king's 
troops had made an ineffectual attempt to possess themselves of 
North Carolina ; Tarleton was defeated with considerable loss ; 
and though Greene, the American general, at the head of a 
powerful division, was twice constrained to yield to the abilities 
of Cornwallis and the valour of Rawdon, the provincials quickly 
recovered their ground, repulsed the enemy in their turn, and 
seemed every day to increase in numbers, and to improve in 



496 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




discipline. The royalists were often in great distress from the 
want of provisions, and, on many occasions, were totally desti- 
tute of bread. No succours had arrived from Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, the commander-in-chief. That general, opposed by Wash- 
ington, and deceived by the artifices of the American leader, 
was in daily apprehension of an attack upon New York, and 
unable to aiford the least assistance to the urmy in Carolina. In 
consequence of an action which took place between the French 
and British fleets, the allies became masters of the Chesapeake. 
Washington, informed of the condition to which the English 
were reduced, took every method in his power in order to com- 
pel them to surrender. With this view, he quitted his station 
in the vicinity of New York, and, accompanied by the marquis 
de Lafayette and the count de Rochambeau, proceeded to 
Williamsburg, in Virginia ; where, putting himself at the head 
of the French and American troops, he advanced to Yorktown ; 
and, after the disembarkation of the stores, laid siege to that 
place. The utmost alacrity prevailing among the allied forces, 
and the whole army exerting itself with unusual vigour, the 
lines were completed in a short time. The situation of Lord 
Cornwallis, and the British under his command, now became 
desperate. The works which they had raised had fallen before 
the artillery of Washington ; their attempts to repel the be- 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1780 AND 1781. 



49' 




SURRENDER OT C R N Tr AIL I S. 



siegers, to stop their progress, and even to escape through the 
American lines, had all proved ineffectual ; every day brought 
the provincials nearer to their object ; and nothing at length 
remained, but to capitulate on the most honourable terms. Ac 
cordingly, on the 19th of October, 1781, the English general 
yielded to the necessity which pressed upon him, and surren- 
dered himself and his whole army prisoners of war. The ar- 
tillery, arms, and accoutrements belonging to the royalists, 
together with their military chest, and stores of every descrip- 
tion, were given up to the Americans ; and seven thousand 
men, the flower of the British troops, remained under the guard 
or escort of the continental battalions. 

The success of the allies in the capture of Yorktown is 
chiefly to be ascribed to the skill and prudence of Washington. 
N'o little artifice was employed to impress Sir Henry Clinton 
with the belief that New York was in danger, and to keep that 
..general in perpetual alarm ; while, in these very circumstances, 
'he American commander was forming his plans and collecting 



68 



2 R 2 



•498 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




TOEKTOWN BATTLE GROUND. 



his supplies, in order to march against Cornwallis in the south. 
The artifice alluded to was maintained with such ability, that 
Clinton did not once suspect the intentions of the pro\ancial 
leader, and was effectually prevented from supporting the falling 
fortunes of his countrymen. The British general was not de- 
ficient in those qualities which lead to bold and adventurous 
exertions ; but he was deceived by appearances, which induced 
him to think rather of defending the capital in his possession, 
than of diminishing his strength in order to secure more distant 
acquisitions. When the design of the Americans, however, was 
known, he made an effort; and, though it was late and ineffi- 
cient, it showed his inclination, at least, to aid the operations 
in the southern countries. To the skill of the French engineers, 
likewise, the success of the allies should, in a great degree, be 
imputed : but, above all, it ought to be ascribed to the perse- 
vering patriotism of the colonists themselves, and that invin- 
cible hatred of oppression, which animated them in every 
struggle, and prompted them, after every defeat, to renewed 
endeavours in the cause of liberty. 

The joy diffused throughout the United States by the sur 



CAMPAIGNS OF 1780 AND 1781. 499 

render of the army under Lord Cornwallis, was equal to the 
anxiety which it had occasioned. The people of America re- 
garded the brilliant achievement of their commander, which put 
the allies in possession of Yorktown, as determining the issue 
of the contest; and from that moment they looked forward to 
the reward of all their toils, and a full compensation for all 
their sufferings. By the congress the intelligence was received 
with the highest satisfaction. They voted the thanks of the 
United States to Washington, to the count de Rochambeau, and 
to the officers and men of the southern army ; they resolved, 
that a marble column should be erected at Yorktown, in Vir- 
ginia, with emblems commemorative of the alliance between tho 
United States and his most Christian majesty ; they determined 
to go in full and solemn procession to the Dutch Lutheran 
church, and give thanks to Almighty God for the success of 
their general and the forces under his command ; and they issued 
a proclamation, appointing the 13th of December as a day of 
thanksgiving and prayer on account of the signal interposition 
Df Divine Providence which they had experienced. 

But if the surrender of Cornwallis was the occasion of joy to 
the Americans, it was the occasion of much and serious concern 
to the British. The war, into which the English nation had at 
first entered with great alacrity, was now become universally 
unpopular. The Americans, having secured the alliance of the • 
French, were more able than ever to resist the force of the 
British arms ; and the spirit which had given rise to the defec- 
tion of the colonies, so far from being subdued, continued to 
influence them in all their determinations. It was perceived, 
that the reduction of the provinces could not be accomplished 
without a great waste of blood and treasure ; and perhaps the 
injustice of forcing the Americans to contribute to the support 
of a government which allowed them no place in its councils 
had at length become evident to the British people. But, from 
whatever cause it arose, it is certain, that a remarkable change 
had taken place in the sentiments of the English nation ; and 
that a desire for peace was everywhere prevalent. Accordingly, 
on the 4th of March, 1782, it was resolved by the House of 
Commons, notwithstanding a violent opposition from the min- 
istry, " that the house will consider as enemies to his majesty 
and the country, all those who advise or attempt a further prose- 



500 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



cution of the offensive war on the continent of North America." 
A change of administration then took place. On the 5th of 
May, Sir Guy Carleton arrived at New York, and was joined 
with Admiral Digby in a commission to treat of peace with the 
people of America : on the 30th of November, the articles were 
signed at Paris ; and the colonies of New Hampshire, Massa- 
chusetts bay, Rhode Island and Providence plantations, Con- 
necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, 
Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and 
Georgia, were acknowledged to be " free, sovereign, and inde- 
pendent states." In this acknowledgment the French had 
already agreed, and their example was speedily followed by the 
other nations of Europe. 

Thus ended the war between Great Britian n^^d America ; a 
war which began in an injudicious and tyrannical endeavour to 
procure a revenue from the colonies, and which terminated in 
their freedom and sovereignty ; a war in which much blood was 
spilt, and many cruelties exercised ; and the issue of which will 
remain as a lesson to those who, unmindful of the rights of the 
people, would lift against them the arm of power, and force 
Lhem to a compliance with their unjust demands. 




FIllST FRENCH REVOLUTION. 



501 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE FIRST FRENCH 
REVOLUTION. 




HE history of the Revolution 
exhibits to us France, during a 
period of forty years, under four 
principal phases, all strikingly 
different the one from the other. 
In the first of these, we see the 
struggle which the nation had to 
maintain against the court and 
the privileged orders — an awful 
and terrible struggle, which ter- 
minated by the triumph of "the 
multitude and the fall of the 
throne. The second exhibits to 
us the scourge of foreign war, 
accompanied by the still more fearful one of the rule of th(! 
populace, and of those violent and vicious men into whose hands 
a blind and uncalculating resistance had thrown the reins of 
power. This second is that bloody period during which France 
was a prey, first to the reign of terror, and then to that of 
anarchy — the period of the republic, up to the 18th Brumaire. 
In its third phase, the revolution shows the nation exhausted 
by a long succession of ills, worn out with its own excesses, 
and seeking, at the feet of the great captain, a refuge in mili- 
tary despotism. During this period, France seems transformed 
into one vast camp, and signalizes, during twelve years, by an 
uninterrupted succession of triumphs, her reaction against com- 
bined Eui-ope. This is the period of the consulate and the 
empire. And finally, when the application of a portion of 
those principles in the name of which the revolution had been 



502 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

effected, has received, from time, a sort of consecration — when 
men, long agitated by opposing views, have, at length, learned 
to live together, and in peace, beneath the iron hand of the 
conqueror, the latter falls, in his turn — the love of freedom 
reawakens in the hearts of Frenchmen, and the restoration 
is accomplished, under the condition that France shall be en- 
dowed with political liberty, and that the general interests in- 
volved in the new order of things which has arisen shall be 
respected. This period, during which France learns to exercise 
her political rights through a struggle of sixteen years for their 
defence, is the last phase of the revolution, and terminates in 
the great days of July, 1830, followed by the establishment of 
a new government, destined to commence with false promises, 
and, after becoming despotic and corrupt, to terminate in a new 
revolution in 1848. 

If, at the outset of the reign of Louis XVI., the voices of 
such men as Turgot and Malesherbes — men alike distinguished 
for their patriotism and their wisdom — had been listened to, 
France would, in all probability, have entered at once upon the 
enjoyment of many of those advantages which she has since 
purchased at such a price of treasure, tears, and blood. But it 
is, alas ! with nations as with individuals : their experience is 
ever dearly bought, and they have need of a painful probation 
ere they will consent to follow the counsels of wisdom. All 
parties in France refused to listen to any other voice than that 
of their own selfish passions, and all perished, in succession, 
the victims of their own furious excesses. During the bloody 
period of which we are now about to trace a rapid sketch, the 
French nation, by its saturnalia of crime, its marvellous victo- 
ries, and its astonishing progress in population and in wealth, 
after a series of the most dreadful convulsions by which an 
empire was ever desolated, was an object, by turns, of horror, 
pity, admiration, and terror to the gazing universe. 

It was on the 5th of May, 1789, that the states-general 
were to open, and the royal sitting, for this purpose, was ac- 
cordingly held in the Salle des Menus, at Versailles. The 
deputies were summoned thither and introduced, according to 
the order established in 1614 ; but the time was gone by when 
the tiers etat, speaking on their knees and bareheaded, acknow- 
ledged their degrading inferiority in the presence of the other 



FIRST FRENCH REVOLUTION. SOH 

orders. They lost no time in showing that they considered 
themselves as the equals of the other two estates ; and when, 
following the example of the king, the deputies of the two 
higher orders covered their heads, those of the commons, con- 
trary to the usage of the ancient states, immediately imitated 
the clergy and the nobles. That simple action alone might 
..ave sufficed to show the court that a revolution had been 
effected in mind and manners. The deputies of the commons, 
however, would have gained but little by proclaiming them- 
selves the equals of the other orders, had they been unable to 
compel the recognition of that equality by basing it on facts. 
The first and most important question to be settled was, whether 
the votes should be taken individually or by orders. In the 
latter case, the deputies of the tiers etat would lose the advan- 
tage which their number (double that of the deputies of each 
of the privileged orders) gave them. The court and the major- 
ity of the nobles and clergy attached the utmost importance 
to procuring a decision that the votes should be taken by orders 
on all political questions. But the nobles included among their 
m-embers many popular dissentients. The curds, too, formed a 
considerable portion of the clerical deputies ; and their opinions 
inclined towards those of the deputies of the tiers etat, to whom 
their unanimity of feeling and numerical force gave an immense 
advantage. These latter displayed, on the present occasion, 
immovable patience and unshaken firmness. They proceeded 
to the verification of their powers, after having invited the no- 
bles and clergy to be present ; and, subsequently, by the ad- 
vice of Sieyes, they constituted themselves, on the 17th of June, 
into a national assembly. This important resolution was im- 
mediately followed up by acts of supremacy. The assembly 
proclaimed the indivisibility of the legislative power, voted the 
provisional levy of taxes so long as they should be sitting, 
and their entire cessation in case they should be dissolved, con- 
solidated the public debt, and appointed a committee of supply. 
Alarmed at the vast ascendency which these early acts of 
theirs gave to the national assembly over the public mind, the 
dominant party at court, opposed to Necker and led by the 
comte d'Artois and the princes de Condd and de Conti, commu-, 
nicated their alarms to Louis XVI., and prevailed on him to 



504 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

interpose his power by annulling the decrees of the assembly, 
commanding the separation of the orders, and taking upon him- 
self to prescribe all the reforms ■which should be undertaken by 
the states-general. For this purpose a royal sitting was an- 
nounced, and, under pretext of the preparations requisite for 
that occasion, the hall of the states was in the mean time 
closed. Bailly, the chief deputy for Paris, presided at that 
time over the assembly, a man at once esteemed for his literary 
and scientific labours, and who had won the respect of all par- 
ties by his nobility and firmness of character. On the 20th 
of June, he presented himself, with a great number of his col- 
leagues, at the door of the hall, and found it closed. The vio- 
lent designs of the court were no longer doubtful, and the 
indignant deputies resolved to thwart their execution. They 
followed their president to the tennis-court, and there, with 
uplifted hands and hearts filled with the sense of what they 
owed to their country, swore, with the exception of a single 
one among them, never to separate till they had given a 
constitution to France. Two days afterwards, the majority 
of the clergy joined the deputies of the commons, in the 
church of Saint Louis, where the latter had assembled provi- 
sionally. 

Such were the preludes to that royal session which was held 
on the 23d of June, and at which Necker excused himself from 
attending. The king appeared there in all the pomp of sove- 
reignty, and was received with chilling silence. He refused to 
recognise the assembly but as that of the order of the tiers 
etat, and commanded it immediately to dissolve. The members 
of the nobility and clergy who were present obeyed as soon as 
the king had departed ; but the commons retained theiv seats. 
The grand-master of the ceremonies entered to remind them of 
the monarch's order. " Tell your master," replied Mirabeau, 
" that we are here by order of the people, and will be driven 
hence only by the bayonet." Then, Si^yes, addressing his 
colleagues, coolly said — " You are to-day what you were yes- 
terday. Let us enter on our deliberations." The assembly 
persisted in all its resolutions, and, on the motion of Mirabeau, 
added one asserting the inviolability of its members. From 
that hour the royal authority was lost. The majority of the 



FIRST FRENCH REVOLUTION. 



505 



members of the clergy sat again in the assembly on its next 
meeting ; and, a few days afterwards, forty-seven members of 
the nobility, among whom was the duke of Orleans, joined it. 
Finally, after the 27th of June, the deliberations became ge- 
neral, and the distinction established between the orders ceased 
to exist- 




ed 



2S 



506 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



r" 







CAPTITKE OF THE BASTILE. 



CAPTURE OF THE BASTILE. 




LL moral authority having thus 
passed from the monarch to the as- 
sembly, the counsellors of Louis 
XVI. rashly persuaded him to have 
recourse to force. Great numbers 
of troops were drawn together round 
Versailles ; Necker was banished ; 
and the mardchal de Broglie, La 
Galissonni^re, the due de la Vau- 
guyon, the baron de Breteuil, and 
the intendant Foulon, all more or less imbued with the opinions 
of the court, were named to the ministry. The approach of 
the troops, and the exile of Necker, provoked a fermentation in 
Paris. Camille Desmoulins, a young man glowing with zeal in 
the cause of freedom, harangued the people in the Palais Royal, 
and summoned them to take up arms. The busts of Necker 
and the duke of Orleans were paraded through Paris. This 
sort of ovation was disturbed by the prince de Lambesc, colonel 
of the royal German corps, who charged the mob ; but the 
French guards took part with the people, — the troops refused 
to fire on their companions in arms, and fell back. The tumult 
and disorder increased throughout the capital. The barriers 



CAPTURE OF THE BASTILE. 507 

were set fire to, and many houses were pillaged by ruffians. 
The populace was without bread, and the greatest evils were to 
be apprehended. To prevent these, a body of electors assem- 
bled at the Hotel de Ville, took the authority into their own 
hands, and rendered great service by their conduct, at once 
firm, active, and prudent. The national assembly, after having 
vainly attempted a reconciliation with the court, unanimously 
decreed the responsibility of ministers, and of all the coun- 
sellors of the king, of what rank soever they might be. A 
vote was passed, expressive of regret for Necker and the dis- 
graced ministers, — the public debt was committed to the safe 
keeping of the national honour, — and the assembly declared 
itself permanent. The archbishop of Vienna presided over it, 
and La Fayette was elected vice-president. 

The populace of Paris, inflamed by the hostile attitude of the 
court and the energetic proceedings of the assembly, determined 
to pursue its advantages, and demanded arms. The committee 
of electors, sitting at the Hotel de Ville, organized the national 
guard, which they increased to forty-eight thousand men, 
giving them the tri-coloured cockade — its colours being those 
of the arms of the city of Paris. Each district had its bat- 
talion. Fifty thousand pikes were forged, — the arsenal of the 
Invalids was pillaged, — and the universal cry of the populace 
was, 'To the Bastile!' The memorable siege of that fortress 
was undertaken ; and the French guards coming to the aid of 
the people, with cannon, decided its capture, the slender gar- 
rison laying down their arms. The governor Delaunay and 
several soldiers, unable to escap'e the fury of the multitude, 
were put to death ; and the populace returned in triumph to the 
Hotel de Ville, bearing the bloody trophies of their victory. A 
letter found on the unfortunate Delaunay involved M. de Fles- 
selles, the mayor of Paris, in an accusation of treason. The 
first impulse of the populace was to massacre him ; but they, 
subsequently, ordered that he should be arraigned before them. 
He was assassinated, however, by a pistol shot. The popular 
efiervescence was at its height ; Paris prepared herself for bat- 
tle on the following day, and the entire city wore the aspect 
of one vast camp. 

The court, however, was still blind enough to see in this 
movement of a whole metropolis no more than a mere riot. The 



508 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

king proposed to dissolve the assembly, and had delegated to 
the commandant of the army, the mar^chal de Broglie, un- 
limited powers. Informed, in the middle of the night, by the 
worthy La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, of the taking of the Bas- 
tile and all the events of the 14th July, — ' This is an insur- 
rection!' said the king. 'No sire,' replied the great citizen, 
< it is a revolution.' The king's firmness gave way, before the 
gravity of the circumstances ; and, on the day following, he 
appeared in the midst of the assembly. 'The silence of the 
people is a lesson for kings,' as Mirabeau had said ; and the 
deputies preserved, at first, an attitude of gloomy attention, in 
the presence of the monarch. But when he had declared to 
them that he and the nation were hut as one, — that the troops 
should be sent away, — and when he added, with a trembling 
voice, ' Well, gentlemen, I place myself in your hands,' — the 
assembly broke forth into acclamations, and rising, conducted 
Louis XVI. back to his palace. 

The king felt the necessity of doing something to appease the 
capital. He caused it to be announced that Necker should be 
recalled, and that he would, himself, repair on the following 
day to Paris, where Bailly had been appointed mayor, and La 
Fayette commandant of the burgher guard. The monarch was 
received by these two. ' Sire,' said the former, in presenting 
to him the keys of the city, — ' Henry IV. conquered back his 
people, — but here the people have conquered back their king.' 
Louis entered the Hotel de Ville without guards, received the 
tri-coloured cockade, amid the acclamations of the multitude, 
and returned to Versailles 'only after having confirmed the 
elections of the people, and sanctioned the new njagistracies. 




THE FIRST EMIGRATION. 



50d 



THE FIRST EN[IGRATION. 




VjWT was at this period that 
^f the first emigration began. 
The comte d'Artois, the 
prince de Cond^, the 
prince de Conti, and the 



Polignac family, set the example 
of quitting France. Necker's re- 
turn to Paris was in the nature of 
a triumph ; but with that event 
ended his career of fame. Believ- 
^^^ ing himself the master of a party, 
who no longer looked on him as 
more than an instrument, he endeavoured to save B^zenval, the 
second in command of the troops, and whom the people had made 
prisoner. Already, the intendant Foulon and his nephew Ber- 
thier had perished, victims of the popular resentment. B^zen- 
val was more deeply compromised than either of these, and 
Necker, by proposing an amnesty, sacrificed his popularity at 
once. From that hour he commenced a fruitless struggle against 
the revolution. The metropolitan movement had extended itself 
into the provinces ; and the people were, everywhere, organizing 
themselves into municipalities and national guards. Troops of 
armed men scoured the country, burning and pillaging the cha- 
teaux and destroying their title-deeds. To allay this irritation, it 
became important that its causes should be in some measure 
removed, by the abolition of the more odious privileges ; and to 
this reform the assembly proceeded unshrinkingly, on the famous 
night of the 4th of August. The signal for sacrifices was given 
by the vicomte de Noailles, who proposed the redemption of 
feudal rights, and the suppression of personal servitude. There 
grew up among the privileged orders a rivalry in offerings, 
and apparently in patriotism. Many of these, however, contri- 

2 s2 



510 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

buted to the destruction of all things in the old social system, 
only in the hope that the universal overthrow must lead to a 
reaction as its inevitable consequence. Abuses and privileges 
were suppressed ; and the assembly voted the redemption of 
tithes, and their conversion into a pecuniary tax, — the abolition 
of the exclusive right of chase and of seignorial jurisdictions, — 
of the sale of magisterial oflSces, — of pecuniary immunities and 
inequality of taxation, — of the annates (first-fruits) of the court 
of Rome, and plurality of benefices ; and the title of ' Restorer 
of French liberty' was bestowed upon Louis XVI. That 
memorable night led to the regulation of the public authorities 
and the gratuitous administration of justice. It gave to all 
Frenchmen equality of rights — all might, thenceforth, aspire to 
office, aim at becoming proprietors, and devote themselves to 
whatsoever branch of industry they might choose. In a word, 
all obstacles were, at once, cleared away, which still ofi'ered any 
opposition to the preparation of the new constitution. 

The assembly was at this period divided into three leading 
parties : — first, that of the court and privileged classes, formed 
of the majority of the nobles and clergy, whose most remarkable 
orators were the abb^ Maury and Cazal^s, a cavalry officer ; — 
secondly, that which desired a constitution after the model of the 
English, — composed principally of the minority among the 
nobles, and having at its head Necker, Meunier, and Lally Tol- 
lendal, the son of General Lally, and early celebrated for the 
conspicuous talent which he had displayed in clearing the memo- 
ry of his father; — and thirdly, the remaining portion of the 
assembly formed the party called national, and which was hostile 
to every kind of aristocratic distinction between the different 
classes of the nation. The most influential members of this 
party were Bailly, Mirabeau, and La Fayette ; by whose side, 
however, were, likewise, conspicuous the members of a cele- 
brated triumvirate, at all times zealous supporters of the most 
popular propositions, formed of the counsellor Duport, the 
originator of the famous confederation of clubs, colonel Alex- 
ander Lameth, and the eloquent Barnave. There was still a 
fourth party in the assembly — that of the duke of Orleans ; but 
this latter was vague and ill-defined, — and, if it had a real exist- 
ence, was composed of a small number of members personally 
attached to the prince, and supposed to entertain the design of 



THE FIRST EMIGRATION. 



511 



transferring the crown to his head. The principal leaders of 
the assembly were two men not belonging to the tiers etat, but 
adopted by it — the abbe Sieyes and Mirabeau. Of these, the 
first swayed it by the influence of a powerful reason, and a mind 
at once philosophical and abounding in ideas both novel and pro- 
tound ; — he ruled in the committees. The second reigned in the 
tribune. Early delivered up to the guidance of his own stormy 
passions, the victim of his personal irregularities, and accus- 
tomed to the struggle with authority, devoured by a craving 
after action and movement proportioned to his own prodigal 
resources, audacious as he was eloquent, revolutions were his 
fitting element. Repulsed by the nobles of Provence, he flung 
himself into the arms of the people, by whom he was received 
with transport, — and exercised over the assembly the sovereignty 
of genius. 




512 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN UISTORY. 



THE ROYAL FAMILY BROUGHT FROM VER- 
SAn.LES TO PARIS. 

HE royal power, de facto suspended, 
was now replaced by that of the 
national assembly ; which imme- 
diately proceeded to appoint 
committees charged with pro- 
viding for every different 
branch of the public service. 
On the proposition of La Fay- 
ette, it then adopted a de- 
claration of rights, framed in 
the spirit of the celebrated 
declaration of the American 
congress, and which served 
as the basis of their constitu- 
tion. This declaration Louis XYI. hesitated to accept, and gave 
his adhesion at length with great reluctance. The assembly next 
decreed the permanence of the legislative body ; and after a very 
animated discussion, in which Necker, Mounier, and Lally-Tollen- 
dal argued for the division of that body into a senate and chamber 
of representatives, it was decided that it should continue indivi- 
sible, and be composed of a single chamber. The next step was 
to determine the action of the monarch in the constitution of the 
laws ; and, here, while some contended that the king should have 
the power of absolute opposition to the decrees of the. assembly, 
it was insisted by others that his veto should be merely suspensive. 
This question excited the most violent debates. Paris was still 
in a state of great agitation, — the natural result of the popular 
victory of the 14th of July. The assembly of electors, who had 
assumed the functions of a provisional municipality, had been 
recently replaced. One hundred and eighty members, named 
by the different districts, had constituted themselves legislators 




THE KOYAL FAMILY. 513 

and representatives of tlie whole body of citizens ; while the 
committees of the sixty districts of Paris assumed to themselves, 
likewise, a legislative power superior to that of their constituents. 
The rage for public discussion had become general ; and assem- 
blies of every description were formed throughout the city. The 
soldiery, the journeymen tailors, the hair-dressers, the body of 
domestic servants, had each their special place of meeting. 
The most animated debates were carried on in the Palais Royal, 
whence the people controlled those of the national assembly. 
There it was that the discussion on the royal veto excited the 
most violent irritation. The middling class, of which the 
national guard was composed, had not yet, at Paris, got all 
power ifito its own hands ; and the ministry, alarmed at the 
threatening demonstrations of the multitude, induced the king 
to abandon the unlimited veto, and confine himself to the sus- 
pensive one. The assembly then decreed that the refusal of 
the royal sanction should not be prolonged beyond two legisla- 
tures. It was not, however, without great difficulty that the 
court was prevailed on to give way ; and projects of a far difier- 
ent character were still nourished there. The coui'tiers aimed 
at exhibiting Louis in the character of an oppressed monarch : 
and, having no hope but in a civil war, were desirous that he 
should take refuge in the midst of his army. Louis XVL 
really loved his people, and withstood these violent suggestions. 
Troops were, however, collected round Versailles. Some dra- 
goons and the regiment of Flanders were summoned thither, 
and the enemies of the revolution resumed courage. A feast 
was given to the officers of the newly-arrived regiments, by 
their comrades, in the salle de spectacle (theatre) of the chateau, 
which was usually reserved for great solemnities ; and in the 
midst of this noisy assemblage suddenly appeared the king and 
queen, the latter carrying the dauphin in her arms. Their en- 
trance was greeted with shouts of enthusiasm ; white cockades 
were distributed, and the tri-coloured emblems trodden under 
foot. Such was the celebrated banquet of the 1st of October, 
whose results were destined to be so fatal to the royal family of 
France. The news of this scene soon spread throughout Paris, 
and produced the most violent fermentation. The arrival of the 
regiments, their hostile demonstrations, the apprehension of 
plots against the people, and, more than all, the existing 
65 



514 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

scarcity of provisions, combined to occasion a fearful outbreak 
of the popular passions. The signal was given, on the 5th of 
October, by a young girl, who traversed the streets, with a drum 
beating, and shouting, 'Bread — bread!' A crowd of women 
gathered round her, and the general cry was — 'To Versailles !' 
Maillard, one of the volunteers of the Bastile, placed himself 
at the head of this motley assemblage, continually swelled by 
the coming in of a furious multitude, and offered to lead them 
thither. Kept in check for seven hours by La Fayette, they, 
however, at length set out, and reached Versailles, where their 
approach had already spread consternation. A first engage- 
jiient had taken place between the populace and the gardes dii 
corps ere La Fayette arrived, at the head of the national guard 
of Paris, to restrain the lawless rabble. His presence restored 
security, and tranquillity was re-established. In the dead of the 
night, however, some stragglers of the mob found one of the 
gratings of the cha,teau open, and, arousing their companions, 
entered the royal abode. The alarm was speedily given, and a 
struggle took place between the populace and the guards on 
duty, — many of whom fell heroically at their posts, exclaiming 
— ' Save the queen !' Marie Antoinette, apprized of her danger, 
fled, half-dressed, into the apartment of the king. La Fayette 
flew to the scene of action, and found that the Paris guard had 
already taken part with the gardes du corps. He succeeded in 
clearing the castle of the mob, exposing his own life to drive 
back the rioters from the royal apartments. The multitude de- 
manded, with loud cries, that the king should make his ap- 
pearance, and that he should repair with his family to Paris. 
Louis XVI. showed himself to the shouting crowd, and promised 
to do as they required. But the queen it was who was the 
special object of the people's hatred, and La Fayette led her 
out on to the balcony, and kissed her hand, before them, with 
deep respect. Shouts of applause arose from the crowd, in an- 
swer. The departure for Paris was determined on ; and the 
royal family repaired thither that same day, escorted by the 
guards, and accompanied by a hideous and bloody procession. 



DEATH OF MIRABEAU. 515 




DEATH OF MIRABEAU— FLIGHT OF THE 
KING— DISSOLUTION OF THE NATIONAL 
ASSEMBLY. 

i;EANTIME, the emigration went on. 
^ The aunts of the king had quitted 
France ; and Louis XVI., suspected 
of an intention to follow them, was 
arrested by the populace, and, with his family, 
detained in Paris, at the moment when he was 
preparing to leave the capital for Saint Cloud. 
The assembly, while proclaiming the inviola- 
bility of the monarch, declared that his flight from the king- 
dom should be construed into a forfeiture of the crown. The 
deputies, however, after having got rid of all abuses and privi- 
leges, and having completed the constitution, began to mani- 
fest in their proceedings a more monarchical tendency. This 
reaction was, in a great measure, attributable to Mirabeau, 
whose services had been bought by the court, and who was de- 
sirous at once to consolidate the throne and maintain all the 
useful results of the revolution. He procured to be rejected, 
as striking at individual liberty, a violent decree which had 
been proposed against the emigrants ; but this was his latest 
triumph. He died a few days afterwards, (1791,) exhausted by 
excesses of all kinds, and his remains were borne to the Pan- 
theon. Perhaps he alone could have directed and restrained 
the revolutionary torrent. His death was a public calamity, 
and the nation wore mourning for him. 

The storm was already muttering on the frontiers, and the 
emigrants were soliciting all Europe against France. They 
formed two bodies — the one organized under Cond^, at Worms, 
the other under the comte d'Artois, at Coblentz. This latter 
prince repaired, accompanied by his minister, Calonne, and Al- 



516 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

phonse de Durfort, to the emperor Leopold ; and the secret decla- 
ration of Mantua, signed on the 20th of May, 1791, was the 
result of their conference. That declaration promised to Louis 
XVI. the aid of a coalition, which was to include Austria, the 
Germanic Circles, Switzerland, and the kings of Sardinia, 
Spain, and Prussia. But it was the wish of Louis to make one 
previous effort to restore the monarchy without foreign aid ; 
and he accordingly attempted to repair to Montmedy to join 
the army commanded by Bouille. His plan of escape was con- 
certed with that general, who placed detachments at certain 
distances along the road which the king was to travel. In the 
night of the 20th of June, the royal family set out, in disguise, 
from the chateau of the Tuileries, eluded the vigilance of the 
guards, passed the barriers of Paris without obstacle, and took 
the road to Chalons and Montmedy. At the news of this 
flight, Paris and the assembly at first seemed stupified. The 
latter, however, immediately took possession of the executive 
authority, announced its pacific intentions to the different pow- 
ers, sent commissioners to the troops to receive their oath of 
allegiance in its own name, and prepared to make it apparent 
to Paris and to France that a monarch was by no means indis- 
pensable to the government of the state. In the mean time, 
however, tidings of the king's arrest were spread abroad. The 
unfortunate Louis had been recognised and stopped at Varen- 
nes, and all the national guards of the environs were instantly 
in arms and afoot. The detachments of troops posted along 
the road were either repulsed or fearful of acting. Bouille 
himself hastened up at the head of a regiment ; but he came 
too late — the king had been, for several hours, on the road back 
to Paris. The assembly had sent three of its members to meet 
him and insure his return. These were the count de Latour- 
Maubourg, Pdtion, and the young Barnave ; and the last of 
these, touched by the affability and sad destiny of the royal 
family, resolved, from that moment, to give them his counsel 
and support. The king was greeted in Paris by a silence of 
most sinister augury. The assembly suspended him provision- 
ally from the exercise of his functions, and appointed commis- 
sioners to interrogate him. The discussions on this subject 
were stormy — some of the disputants wishing to maintain the 
king on the throne, and others arguing for his deposition. La- 



FLIGHT OF THE KING. 517 

meth and Barnave joined the moderate party, with the view of 
defending the monarch, and created the club of the Feuillants 
for the purpose of opposing that of the Jacobins, the direction 
of which had been assumed by Petion and Robespierre, the 
leaders of the republican party. The assembly, by the advice 
of Barnave, declared that there was no pretence for bringing 
Louis XIV. to trial,, or pronouncing a forfeiture against him ; 
but at the same time, in order to calm the popular eifervescence, 
it decreed that the king should be considered as having abdi- 
cated de facto and forfeited his inviolability, if he should make 
war upon the nation, or suffer it to be made in his name. This 
decision of the assembly, however, irritated the multitude. The 
agitators drew up a petition, in which they appealed to the 
sovereignty of the people, and treated Louis XVI. as having 
abandoned the crown by his flight. This petition was pre- 
pared by Brissot, and carried, on the 17th of July, to the 
Champ de Mars, where, being laid upon the national altar, 
Danton and Camille Desmoulins harangued an immense multi- 
tude, whom they incited to insurrection. The danger became 
imminent, and the assembly enjoined the municipality to take 
charge of the public safety. La Fayette and Bailly marched 
to the Champ de Mars at the head of a numerous body of the 
national guards. Bailly read the summonses prescribed by the 
law, and ordered the red flag to be displayed. The multitude 
replied to this signal by a shower of stones, and all hope of 
conciliation being now at an end, it became necessary to have 
recourse to force. La Fayette commanded the guard to fire. 
The second discharge was murderous, and dispersed the mob. 
They took to flight; but never forgave either La Fayette or 
Bailly for having done their duty on this fatal day. These de- 
plorable dissensions restored confidence to the foes of the revo- 
lution, and the emigrants devoted all their energies to promot- 
ing a general European confederation for its suppression. 
Monsieur assumed the title of regent at Brussels, Bouille wrote 
a fierce and menacing letter to the assembly, and the emperor, 
the king of Prussia, and the comte d'Artois met at Pilnitz, 
where, at the risk of compromising the monarch whom they 
sought to defend, they signed the treaty of the 27th of July. 
In this declaration they assumed the cause of Louis XVI. for 
their own, and demanded that he should be restored to the 

2T 



618 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



throne and the assembly dissolved ; denouncing the most fright- 
ful calamities against France in case of refusal. The indignant 
assembly replied to these menaces by the levy of a hundred 
thousand national guards and the arming of the frontiers. The 
operations of that body were, however, approaching to their 
close, the convocation of the electoral colleges being fixed for 
the 5th of August. By a fatal decree, issued previous to the 
king's flight to Varennes, the members of the existing assembly 
had formally excluded themselves from eligibility into the ranks 
of its successor. In vain did Duport exclaim, " How comes it 
that they who cram us now-a-days with principles have failed 
to recognise stability as a necessary principle of good govern- 
ment ?" The decree was promulgated, and the mania of disin- 
terestedness becoming contagious, Bailly surrendered the may- 
oralty, and La Fayette the command of the national guards ; 
and thus the conduct of the revolution was surrendered into the 
hands of a new set of men, who began a fresh revolutionary 
system of their own, in the sole design of building up a name 
and fortune to themselves. 




THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY— THE GIRONDISTS. 



519 




LAYFATETTE. 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY— THE 
GIRONDISTS. 



HE court, the nobles, and the clergy had/ 
exercised no influence over the new 
elections, which were of a character 
entirely popular; and the assembly 
opened its session on the 1st of Octo- 
ber, 1791. It proceeded at once to de- 
clare itself the national legislative as- 
sembly ; and, amid the acclamations of 
the people who thronged the galleries, 
took, upon the constitutional act, the 
oath, to live freemen, or to die. The 
minoritjr of the former assembly had 
become the majority of this, and the parties of which it was 
composed speedily declared themselves. The right, consisting 
of members formerly attached to the constitution, formed the 
party of the Feuillants, and was supported by the club of that 
name, the national guard, and the army. But it was no longer 




520 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

paramount in the assembly, and was compelled to cede the im- 
portant post of the municipality to its opponents of the left, 
who composed the Girondin party, headed by Vergniaud, Gua- 
det, and Gensonnd, the celebrated orators of the Gironde, from 
whence it took its name ; and, in conjunction with them, by 
Brissot, Condorcet, and the violent Isnard. This latter party 
was disposed to call in, to the aid of the revolution, the passions 
of the multitude and the weapons of violence, — differing, in 
that respect, from the constitutionalists, who rejected all other 
support than that of the law. The centre of the legislative as- 
sembly was attached to the new order of things ; but the public 
danger swayed its resolutions, and carried it over to the party 
of the left. Out of doors, the Girondins were supported by the 
democratic party, who influenced the populace and the clubs. 
Robespierre swayed that of the Jacobins ; Danton, Camille Des- 
moulins, and Fabre d'Eglantine governed the still more violent 
one of the Cordeliers, and Santerre ruled in the faubourgs. 
Such were the principal chiefs of the popular party, and their 
power was rapidly increased by the audacious enterprises of the 
leaders of the revolution. 

The number of emigrants continued daily to increase. The 
king's two brothers and the princes had protested against the 
acceptance, by Louis XVI., of the constitutional act ; and, at 
their appeal, the nobles quitted their chateaux, and the oflBcers 
their regiments. Hostile assemblages were formed in the Aus- 
trian Netherlands and the neighbouring electorates ; and a 
counter-revolution was in preparation at Brussels, at Worms, and 
at Coblentz, under the protection of foreign courts. While the 
emigrant nobles were arranging all things abroad for war, the 
refractory priests omitted no means of arousing the people in the 
same cause, by exciting their fanaticism. The bishops forbade 
the receiving of the sacraments from the priests whom they 
designated as intrus, (interlopers) ; menacing circulars against 
all who participated therein, were distributed throughout the 
country ; and dangerous disturbances broke out in Calvados, 
G^vaudan, and La Vendue. The enraged assembly, on the 
30th of October, adopted a decree, which declared Louis-Stan- 
islaus-Xavier, the king's brother, to have forfeited his title to 
the regency, unless he should re-enter France within two months : 
and afterwards declared that all Frenchmen assembled be- 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY— THE GIRONDISTS. 5'21 

yond the fi'ontiers were suspected of conspiring against their 
country ; and that, if, on the 1st of January, 1792, they shouhi 
still be in a state of hostile assemblage, they should be treated 
as such conspirators, and punishable with death: and, finally, 
it decreed that the refractory ecclesiastics should be required to 
take the civic oath, under pain of being deprived of their pen- 
sions, and should be liable to arrest in the event of religious dis- 
turbances occurring within their parishes. The king sanctioned 
the first of these decrees, but opposed his veto to the two others. 
At the same time, he declared vehemently against the emigra- 
tion ; but his court relied on the co-operation of Europe, and 
was the focus of most of the intrigues carried on against the 
assembly. Blinded by its hatred towards the constitution and 
its authors, it committed the great and fatal error of withholding 
its confidence from the constitutionalists, when they alone were 
devoted to its defence. In this manner, it lifted the Girondin 
Potion to the mayoralty, in preference to La Fayette, and 
opened up the municipality of Paris to the creatures of the mob. 
The national indignation was, at this period, especially ex- 
cited by the conduct of the frontier princes, who warmly re- 
ceived the emigrants, and encouraged military congregations. 
The assembly sought to obtain, from Louis XVL, a solemn 
declaration against these princes, and Isnard concluded a dis- 
course, delivered with this object, from the tribune, in these 
passionate words ; — ' Let us say to Europe, that if her cabinets 
engage their kings in a war against the people, we will engage 
the people in a war unto the death against kings. Let us say 
to her, that the battles which the people fight against each 
other, by order of their despots, are like the blows that two 
friends, misled by a treacherous instigator, aim at each other in 
the dark. When the light of day appears, they fling away their 
arms, embrace, and unite in chastising him who deceived them 
both. And thus, at the moment when the hostile armies shall 
struggle against ours, should the dawn of philosophy strike 
their eyes, the nations shall embrace each other, in view of 
tyrants dethroned, the earth comforted, and heaven approving.' 
The proposed measure was carried unanimously and triumphantly, 
and received the sanction of the monarch. ' If,' said he, < my 
representations shall be disregarded, it will then but remain 
for me to propose war.' The assembly voted twenty millions 
66 2 T 2 



522 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORF. 

for this object ; one hundred and fifty thousand men were raised, 
and three armies were formed, on the northern and eastern 
frontiers, under the respective commands of Rochambeau, Luck- 
ner, and La Fayette. The arraignment of the emigrant princes 
was, at the same time, determined on, and Monsieur was de- 
clared to have forfeited his title to the regency. To these de- 
crees of the assembly, Austria, at that time governed by the 
prince of Kaunitz, as its prime minister, replied by an order to 
the mardchal de Bender to support the elector of Treves, in case 
he should be attacked ; and by demanding the restoration of 
the Germanic princes who had formerly held territorial sway in 
Alsace, — insisting upon the re-establishment of feudalism in that 
province, or war as the alternative. 

The legislative assembly accused the ministry of weakness and 
insincerity ; and the minister of war, Narbonne, who was sin- 
cerely attached to the constitution, having been sacrificed, by 
means of a court intrigue, to Bertrand de Molleville, the minister 
of marine, who was justly an object of suspicion, a total break- 
ing up of the council was the consequence, followed by the com- 
mittal of Delessart, the minister for foreign afi'airs, for trial 
before the high court of Orleans. Constrained by circumstances, 
the king, then, formed a Girondin ministry, whose most re- 
markable members were General Dumouriez and Roland. The 
first of these, accustomed to intrigue from his youth upwards, 
ind seeking to push his fortune at any price, was bold, fickle, 
and unshackled by political convictions of any kind, but gifted 
with an acute perception, and a genius fertile in resources. The 
second was a passionate lover of liberty — worthy, by the sim- 
plicity of his manners and the austerity of his morals, to be the 
son of a republic ; but his talents were slender, and he was 
chiefly remarkable by means of his wife, distinguished by quali- 
ties at once noble and winning, and herself the soul and coun- 
sellor of the Gironde. 

The first measure of the new ministry had relation to the 
war. Leopold was dead, and was about to be succeeded in the 
empire by Francis II., king of Bohemia and Hungary, — whose 
accession, however, made no change in the Austrian policy 
towards France. The prince of Kaunitz, in his name, de- 
manded the restoration to the clergy of the property of the 
church, of the territories of Alsace to the German princes, and 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY— THE GIRONDISTS. 



523 




BOCHAMBEAU. 



of the Venaissin to the pope. To this ultimatum of Austria, 
Louis XVI. replied by a proposition of war, and the assembly 
decided on its adoption. The invasion of Belgium, occupied by 
the Prussians, was resolved upon, and Rochambeau was ordered 
to undertake, it. But the first two of the invading columns 
were seized with a panic at sight of the Prussian army, and 
fled. Rochambeau shortly afterwards resigned his command ; 
and thenceforth the war assumed a defensive character. The 
army of La Fayette extended itself from the sea to Longwy, and 
that of Luckner from the Moselle to the Jura. 

This first reverse of the republican arms excited great un- 
easiness and kindled violent discontent. The court was ac- 
cused of an understanding with the enemy. The existence 
within it of an Austrian committee was denounced without any 
proof, and the assembly declared itself permanent. It issued 
orders for the disbanding of the king's constitutional guard, 
which he had increased from eighteen hundred to six thousand 



524 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

raen ; and published two decrees, in opposition to the royal 
will, — by one of which the refractory priests were exiled, and 
by the other a camp of twenty thousand men was established 
under the walls of Paris. The ministers implored the king to 
deprive the opposition clergy of all hope, by admitting the 
priests who had taken the oaths about his person ; but their 
efforts were unavailing, and a schism broke out, on this subject, 
in the ministry. Roland wrote a severe letter to Louis XVI. 
on his constitutional duties, conjuring him to make himself 
frankly and in good faith the king of the revolution. This let- 
ter gave offence to the monarch, and decided the dissolution of 
the cabinet. The Girondin ministers were dismissed, and, a few 
days afterwards, the two decrees were rejected by the king. 
The assembly immediately proceeded to a declaration that three 
of the members of the late ministry, Roland, Servan, and Cla- 
vi^re, carried with them the regrets of the nation. 

The new ministry was chosen from the party of the Feuillants, 
whose ranks were composed of men, the moderation of whose 
opinions deprived them of the support of the multitude, while 
their attachment to the constitution rendered them odious to the 
court. They were, in consequence, powerless ; and the king, 
himself, perceiving their feebleness, had no longer any hope 
save in the intervention of Europe, and charged Mallet-Dupan 
with a secret mission to the combined princes. The monarchists, 
at the head of whom were Lally and Malouet, made a last effort 
to retard the forward march of the revolution. Duport, Lameth, 
Barnave, and La Fayette, attempted to suppress the clubs, and 
to restore the royal authority. La Fayette wrote to the as- 
sembly, denouncing the Jacobins as the fomenters of all disturb- 
ances, and imploring it to take none but legal measures for the 
public weal and safety. This letter, however, had no other 
effect than that of shaking the credit of the young general. 
Parties grew more and more divided, and all hope of conciliation 
gradually vanished. All parties alike sought their triumphs by 
culpable means. The court reckoned on the co-operation of 
Europe to enable it to recover its power, and the Gironde relied 
on the multitude to aid it in establishing its own ; while Chabot, 
Santerre, and the marquis de Sainte-Hurugue agitated in the 
faubourgs. The anniversary of the Jeu de Paume was ap- 
proaching, and a formidable insurrection was in preparation. 



THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY— THE GIRONDISTS. 5'25 

On that day, the 20th of June, thirty thousand men, armed 
with pikes, descended fi'om the faubourgs, and marched towards 
the place of session of the assembly, where their chief was en- 
gaged in pronouncing a furious discourse. His hideous cortege 
filed into the hall, singing the bloody chorus of ga ira, and 
amid cries of Vivent les sans-culottes ! d has le veto ! From 
thence, Santerre and Sainte-Hurugue conducted them to the 
Tuileries, the gates of which the king commanded to be opened. 
He pi'esented himself, almost alone, before the insurgents ; and, 
summoned by them to sanction the two decrees, resisted with 
admirable courage. He dared not, however, refuse the bonnet 
rouge, which was presented to him at the end of a pike, and 
which he placed on his head, amid the plaudits of the populace. 
At length, Petion arrived and harangued the multitude, who 
dispersed, without resistance, — satisfied, for the moment, with 
having insulted royalty with impunity. 

The constitutionalists, indignant at this outrage, besought the 
king to grant them his confidence and accept their support. 
The due de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt proposed to conduct 
him to Rouen, where he held a command; and La Fayette im- 
plored him to place himself at the head of his army. The un- 
fortunate monarch, however, seemed blinded by some fatality, 
and refused these propositions. La Fayette hastened to Paris, 
and demanded of the assembly the destruction of the sect of Ja- 
cobins, and the punishment of the ringleaders of the 20th of 
June. Before, however, inviting him to the honour of a pla^'.e 
among them, the assembly deliberated if they should not arraign 
him as a deserter from his post. La Fayette reckoned upon 
the national guard to support him in closing the clubs : — the 
court, however, caused the failure of his project, — the national 
guard refused to respond to his appeal, — and he returned to the 
army, with the loss of his influence and popularity. 




526 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



INSURRECTION OF THE 10th OF AUGUST- 
FLIGHT OF LA FAYETTE. 




In 



HE foreign sovereigns were still 
collecting formidable masses 
on the frontiers, "while the di- 
vision of parties at home ren- 
dered the situation of the king 
dom daily more alarming 
the assembly, the king was the 
object of the most violent in- 
vectives, and the question of 
forfeiture was already agitated 
in that body, when, on the 5th 
of July, the assembly declared 
the country in danger. All 
citizens capable of bearing arms were called into activity, pikes 
were distributed, battalions of volunteers enrolled, and a camp 
formed at Soissons. The revolutionary enthusiasm was at its 
height, when the federated Marseillois arrived at Paris. Pdtion 
became the object of the popular adoration, and, on the anni- 
versary of the 14th of July, the universal cry of the federa- 
tion was "Potion or death." The club of the Feuillants was 
closed, the companies of grenadiers and chasseurs of the na- 
tional guard were broken, the Swiss troops and the regiments 
of the line removed, and all things were tending towards a 
catastrophe. 

Meantime, the enemy was in motion. The duke of Bruns- 
wick, preceded by a threatening manifesto, was advancing at 
the head of seventy thousand Prussians and sixty-eight thou- 
sand Austrians, Hessians, and emigrants. The manifesto in 
question fulminated fearful menaces against Paris, and all other 
towns which should have the audacity to defend themselves 



INSURRECTION OF THE 10th OF AUGUST. 527 

It excited everywhere the indignation of the populace, and pro- 
duced a general rising. In Paris, the popular party was de- 
sirous at once to annul the king's authority. Robespierre, 
Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Fabre d'Eglantine, and the infa- 
mous Marat, harangued the multitude and inflamed its madness. 
On the 3d of August, the mayor Potion presented himself be- 
fore the assembly, and, in the name of the city and the sections, 
demanded the deposition of the king. The petition was re- 
ferred to a committee of twelve members, and a few days 
afterwards the question of sending La Fayette for trial was 
discussed. He escaped by a small majority, and the people 
hooted and maltreated those who had voted in his favour. 
Scenes of disorder were daily multiplied, and the insurgents 
fixed the morning of the 10th of August for an attack on the 
palace. 

The faubourg Saint-Antoine, whither the Jacobins repaired 
in procession, was the centre of the insurrection ; and there it 
was determined to leave Potion behind, for the purpose of re- 
lieving him from all responsibility, and to substitute an insur- 
rectionary municipality for the council of the commune. At 
the same time, the agitators spread themselves through the 
barracks of the confederated Marseillois and Bretons. In- 
formed of these alarming preparations, the court had put the 
chateau in a state of defence. The interior was guarded by 
eight or nine hundred Swiss, and by a body of gentlemen armed 
with swords and pistols. Several battalions of national guards, 
and, among others, those of the Filles- Saint- Thomas and the 
Petits-Peres, distinguished for their royalist sentiments, occu- 
pied the courts and external posts ; but a fatal event disturbed 
their resolution. Mandat, their commandant-general, was sum- 
moned before the new council of the commune to give an ac- 
count of his conduct, and butchered by the mob on the steps of 
the Hotel de Ville. Santerre was immediately invested with 
the command of the national guard ; and the court found itself 
thus deprived of its firmest and most influential defender. The 
insurgents, animated by the terrible Danton, advanced in seve- 
ral columns and pointed their cannon against the chateau. The 
king, overwhelmed with grief, took a review of his defenders ; 
but even in the ranks of the national guard the cries of Vive le 
roi ! were drowned amid those of Vive PStion ! — a has le veto ! 



528 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

— d has Ic trattre ! The procureur syndic, Roederer, advanced 
towards the insurgents, and read to them that article of the law 
which enjoined the repelling of force by force ; but he was fee- 
bly seconded by the national guard, and the insurgents drew 
fresh daring from that fact. Then Roederer returned into the 
chS^teau, and declared to the royal family that there was no 
longer safety for them but in the bosom of the legislative as- 
sembly. " Let us go, sire," said the queen, presenting him 
with a pistol, "the moment to show yourself has arrived." 
Louis made no answer ; but, after a few moments, he gave the 
signal for departure, and repaired to the hall of the assembly 
amid the insults and clamours of the populace. Vergniaud 
presided over the chamber, and the king placed himself by his 
side ; but Chabot having reminded the assembly that they 
could not deliberate in the presence of the king, Louis and his 
family withdrew behind the president into the obscure box of 
the logographe, (short-hand writer.) 

The cause of the contest had ceased to exist since the king's 
departure for the assembly; yet it continued, nevertheless, to 
rage furiously between the Swiss and the assailants, of whom 
the Marseillois and Bretons formed the advanced guard. The 
attack was directed by the daring Westermann, formerly a sub- 
altern adjutant. The Swiss, whom their first fire had rendered 
masters of the Carousel, were soon driven back by the multi- 
tude and cut to pieces. This was the last day of the monarchy. 
The new municipality came before the assembly to demand the 
recognition of its powers, preceded by three banners, on which 
were inscribed the words patrie, Uberte, egalite, (our country, 
liberty, equality ;) and concluded its address by demanding the 
king's deposition and a national convention. Vergniaud re- 
plied by proposing the convocation of an assembly extraordi- 
nary, the dismissal of the ministers, and the suspension of the 
royal office. These measures were approved : the Girondin 
ministers were recalled, Louis XVL was conducted to the Tem- 
ple, and the 23d of September was fixed for the opening of the 
assembly, which was to decide on the destinies of the nation. 
From that moment the revolutionary movement was directed 
rather to the maintenance of the public safety than the promo- 
don of liberty ; and La Fayette perceived that such was its 
future mission, after having himself made incredible efforts for 




TBE TEMPLE. 



FLIGHT OF LA FAYETTE. 



531 



the re-establishment of the constitutional monarchy. The ene- 
my's army was approaching, and the country was menaced by 
civil war. Under these circumstances, La Fayette could not 
hesitate between the resignation of his command and the chance 
of provoking internal strife. He abandoned his army, accom- 
panied by Bureau de Pusy, Latour-Maubourg, and Alexandre 
de Lameth, and passed the frontier. Recognised by the Aus- 
trian posts, he was arrested and imprisoned by the emperor, 
first at Magdeburg, and afterward at Olmutz, in defiance of the 
law of nations. There he exhibited a noble courage during 
four years of cruel captivity. His release was made conditional, 
on certain retractations which were required from him ; and 
he chose rather to remain in fetters than abjure the cause to 
which he had dedicated his fortune and life. 




532 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN OF TER- 
ROR—SEPTEMBER MASSACRES — BATTLE 
OF VALMY. 




N Paris, the victor party 
of the 10th of August 
proceeded to the establish- 
ment of its authority, by 
the most violent measures. 
It caused all the statues 
of the kings to be thrown 
down, abrogated the de- 
partmental directory, and 
abolished the qualifica- 
tions required by law for 
the citizen franchise — 
thereby opening up to the 
multitude an unrestricted 
access into the government. Finally, the same party de- 
manded from the assembly the establishment of an extraordi- 
nary tribunal for the trial of those whom it called the conspi- 
rators of the 10th of August. The required tribunal was 
established ; but its administration of justice seemed too tardy 
to the savage crowd, which obeyed the inspirations of Marat, 
Panis, Sergent, Jourdeuil, Collot-d'Herbois, Billaud-Varennes, 
and Tallien, and was, above all, swayed by the turbulent and 
terrible Danton, recently appointed to the ministry of justice, 
and named the Mirabeau of the mob. 

The Prussians, supported by thirty-six thousand Austrians 
and ten thousand Hessians, menaced the northern frontier ; and 
six thousand French emigrants, under the prince de Conde, 
marched, in co-operation with them, against France. The 
army of Sedan was without a leader, and the foreign invasion 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE REIGN OF TERROR. 533 

rapidly advanced. Longwy, invested by the invaders, capitu- 
lated, Verdun was bombarded, and the road from that place to 
Paris was open. Terror reigned in the capital, and in the ex- 
ecutive council the question of retiring beyond the Loire was 
debated. Danton, however, contended that France was Paris, 
and there they must maintain themselves at all risks and what- 
ever cost. He concluded his address by these portentous words : 
" My advice is, that, for the purpose of confounding the agi- 
tators and arresting the enemy, it behooves us to strike terror 
into the royalists." 

Accordingly, numerous arrests were immediately ordered, the 
prisoners being selected from the dissentient classes of the no- 
bles and clergy. Regiments were marched to the frontier, the 
drums beat to arms, and cannon were fired. The news of the 
taking of Verdun reached Paris in the night between the 1st 
and 2d of September, and spread dismay throughout the capi- 
tal. The populace seized upon this moment for the accomplish- 
ment of its execrable projects : the tocsin was sounded, the 
barriers closed, and the massacres of the prisons commenced. 
During three days, the unhappy nobles and priests recently 
consigned to the Abbaye, the Conciergerie, the Carmes, and 
the Force, were slaughtered by three hundred murderers, amid 
a hideous parody of judicial forms. On the part of the vic- 
tims, traits of noble resignation and the most heroic devotion, 
and on that of the butchers, acts of atrocious madness were 
multiplied through all that fearful time. Skilful in the inven- 
tion of tortures for those even whom their hands could not 
reach, they enacted their horrible saturnalia beneath the walls 
of the Temple itself — presenting to the eyes of the queen, at 
the windows of that royal prison, the bleeding head of her 
friend, the unfortunate princess de Lamballe. The assembly 
would have put a stop to these massacres, but wanted the power. 
The mayor Petion was suspended from his functions, the good 
among the citizens were terror-struck, and the mob reigned 
supreme in Paris. These dreadful scenes did irreparable in- 
jury to the revolvt'onary cause, and their punishment returned 
at last on the heads of their ferocious authors. 

The Prussians continued to advance ; and Dumouriez, who 
had been appointed to the command of the army on the Moselle, 
threw himself, by an inspiration of genius, into the forest of 

2u2 



534 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Argonne, the only position in which he could arrest the march 
of the enemy. There, he established the main body of his army 
at Grand-Prd and Les Islettes, and wrote as folloAvs to the as- 
sembly: — "I am waiting for the Prussians. The camp of 
Grand-Pre and that of Les Islettes are the Thermopylse of 
France ; but I shall be more fortunate than Leonidas." The 
Prussians were, in fact, compelled to suspend their march ; but 
a fault committed by Dumouriez compelled him to abandon his 
position and fall back on the camp of Sainte-Menehould, where 
he concentrated his forces and awaited the reinforcements which 
Beurnonville and Kellermann were leading towards him. His 
army amounted to seventy thousand men. On the 20th of 
September, the Prussians attacked Kellermann, at Valmy, with 
the intention of cutting off the retreat of the French army. 
The action was confined to a sharp cannonade, which was pro- 
longed until the evening, and the honour of the day remained 
with the French. This first success, unimportant as it was in 
other respects, animated the republican army and gave it confi- 
dence in itself, at the same time that it surprised the enemy, to 
Avhom the emigrants had spoken of this invading campaign as 
of a mere military promenade. The duke of Brunswick was 
without magazines, and the season was growing unfavourable. 
He offered to retire, on condition that the French should re- 
store the constitutional king to his throne. The executive 
council replied " that the French republic could listen to no pro- 
position until the Prussian troops should have evacuated the 
territory of France." Brunswick thereupon ordered a retreat, 
which was commenced on the 30th of September. The French 
re-entered Verdun and Longwy, and the enemy repassed the 
Rhine at Coblentz. The campaign had been marked, likewise, 
by other successes at different points. On the Rhine, Custine 
had possessed himself of Treves, Spires, and Mayence ; Mon- 
tesquieu had invaded Savoy, and Anselme the county of Nice. 
Everywhere the French armies had resumed the offensive, and 
the revolution was triumphant. 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 



5as 




ROBESPIERRE AND DANTOrf. 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 




<HE first act of the new as- 
sembly, which assumed the 
title of the National Con- 
vention, -was to abolish roy- 
alty and proclaim the repub- 
lic ; its next, to declare that 
it would date from the year 
I. of the French republic. 
These measures were voted 
by unanimous acclamation ; but a short time only had elapsed 
ere the two parties who, towards its close, had divided the legis- 
lative assembly, recommenced a furious contest, the issue of 
which was fatal to both. The parties in question were that of 
the Girondins, who sat on the right of the assembly, and that 
of the Mountain, who occupied the upper part of the left, from 
which position they derived the name by which they were de- 
signated. The first of these, respectable alike by their intelli- 
gence and the uprightness of their intentions, were sincerely 
republicans ; but, in the volcanic condition at which the nation 
had arrived, their disgust for the multitude and their repug- 
nance towards all violent measures placed them in a false po- 



536 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

sition, and they had lost the confidence of the constitutionalists 
without acquiring that of the democrats. The Mountain party, 
less enlightened and less eloquent than the Girondins, were 
more consistent, more decided, and nowise scrupulous in the 
choice of means. The extreme of democracy appeared to them 
the best of possible governments, and their principal leaders 
were Danton, Robespierre, and Marat. The latter two of these, 
in particular, were objects of hatred to the Girondins. Robes- 
pierre, moderately endowed with talents, but devoured by envy 
and ambition, had hitherto kept himself aloof, always- declaring, 
whether in the constituent assembly, in the Jacobin club, which he 
ruled, or in the convention, against those who, by turns, had ob- 
tained the ascendency in each. He aimed at the highest place 
for himself ; and, associating the cause of his own vanity with the 
passions of the populace, he triumphed over all superiority by 
branding it with the names, at that time odious, of aristocracy 
and privilege. He imposed on the multitude by an austere life 
and the externals of patriotism, and won its affections by lavish- 
ing on it the wealth and blood of the vanquished. Marat, a 
furious fanatic, had made himself the avowed apostle of murder 
in his discourses and in his infamous journal, L'Ami du Peuple, 
(The Friend of the People.) He advocated a dictatorship to 
combat the enemies of the revolution, and extermination in 
the mass for their removal. These two leaders, worthy the one 
of the other, left far behind them Danton and his partisans, 
who, in the career of murder, would have paused at the massa- 
cres of September. In the assembly, the Girondins prevailed 
over their rivals, and they had the departments in their favour ; 
but the terrible commune of Paris was devoted to the Montag- 
nards, who, by its means, directed the insurrections ; by that 
of the Jacobins, the public mind, and, finally, the sections and 
the faubourgs by the aid of the sans-culottes. A third party, 
but without decided opinions and without system, fluctuated be- 
tween the two others, and was known as the party of the Plain, 
or of the Marais. It was made up of men for the most part 
well-intentioned, but wanting in firmness. So long as they had 
nothing to apprehend for themselves, they voted for the Gi- 
I'onde, ind kept it in a majority ; but fear finally flung them 
into the ranks of the opposing party. 

The Girondins, and, among others, the spirited Barbaroux. 



THE NATIONAL CONVENTION. 537 

chief of the Marseillois, accused Robespierre of aiming at a 
tyranny ; but this accusation, ill sustained, recoiled upon Ma- 
rat, who was the daily panegyrist of murder. The latter sought 
to clear himself from the charge, but his appearance in the 
tribune excited a movement of horror ; and, when this fearful 
man calmly exclaimed, " I have, in this assembly, many per- 
sonal enemies," "All, all !" was the general cry. This attack, 
however, had, notwithstanding, no result ; but a few days later 
it was resumed against Robespierre. " No one," said the latter, 
" dares accuse me to my face." " I dare !" exclaimed Louvet, 
and, rushing to the tribune, he overwhelmed Robespierre by a 
brilliant and vigorous denunciation, prefacing each new enume- 
ration of a grievance by the emphatic formula, " Robespierre, 
/accuse thee." The future tyrant would have be to conquered 
on that very day, but he asked and obtained a wreek to prepare 
his defence, and the dispute was terminated by the order of the 
day. Thus it was that the Girondins contributed to swell, by 
their attacks, the importance of their adversaries, not perceiv- 
ing that they must conquer and crush them, or perish them- 
selves. Powerless against the citizens, they abandoned, in ad- 
dition, the club of the Jacobins to their enemies, and irritated 
the populace of Paris by demanding that the guard of the as- 
sembly should be composed of a body drawn from the depart- 
ments. From this circumstance, they acquired the name of 
Federalists, with the reproach of seeking to arm the provinces 
against the capital ; while the Mountain party procured a decree 
declaratory of the unity and indivisibility of the republic. 




538 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 




HE French arms were triumphant 
in Belgium, "where, on the 6th 
of November, Dumouriez gained 
the celebrated victory of Jem- 
mapes over the Austrians, near 
Mons. On the 14th, he entered 
Brussels, while his generals took 
possession of Namur and Ant- 
werp. The Austrians were 
driven back beyond the Roer, 
and all Belgium was subdued. 
From that time began the dis- 
sensions between the conqueror 
Dumouriez and the Jacobins. 
These latter pounced upon the 
conquered provinces as their prey. The Flemings had received 
the French enthusiastically, as liberators ; but the Jacobins 
soon estranged them by oppressing them with extortions, and 
delivering them over to an odious state of anarchy. Indignant 
at their proceedings, Dumouriez repaired to Paris, with the two- 
fold object of repressing their violence and saving Louis XVI. 
His efforts, however, in the one cause and the other, were alike 
. powerless. 

For the last four months, the unfortunate monarch had lan- 
guished in the tower of the Temple, with the queen, Madame 
Elizabeth, his sister, an angel of gentleness and goodness, and 
his two children, dividing his hours betwixt the care of their 
education and reading. The city exercised a cruel surveillance 
over its captives, and laboured, by overwhelming them with 
mortifications, to prepare them for the frightful catastrophe 
which awaited them. The discussion on the trial of the king 
was opened in the convention on the 13th of November, and 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVL 539 

the principal charges against him arose out of papers found at 
the Tuileries in an iron chest, the secret of which had been re- 
vealed to the minister Roland. Therein were discovered all 
the plottings and intrigues of the court against the revolution, 
as well as the arrangements with Mirabeau and the general 
Bouill^. Other papers, too, found in the office of the civil list, 
seemed to establish the fact that Louis XVI. had not been alto- 
gether a stranger to the movements negotiated in Europe in his 
favour. As king, however, the constitution had declared him 
inviolable ; besides, he was deposed, and could not, but in defi- 
ance of every law, be condemned for acts anterior to his depo- 
sition. The Montagnards themselves felt all the illegality of 
the proceedings directed against him. Robespierre, in demand- 
ing his death, repudiated all forms as fictions, and relied, as 
did Saint-Just, solely on reasons of state. " What," said the 
latter, " have not good citizens and true friends of liberty to 
fear, when they see the axe tremble in your hands, and a peo- 
ple, in the very dawn of its freedom, respecting the memory of 
its chains ?" The Mountain party, in earnestly labouring for 
the condemnation of the king, had a further object than the 
single one of punishing him. They were anxious to crush the 
Gironde, which had openly manifested a desire to save him, and 
to arrive at power by prolonging the revolutionary movement 
through the means of this frightful coup d'etat. The large 
majority of the assembly persisted in the determination to sub- 
mit this great process to judicial forms ; and Louis XVL, who 
had already been separated from his family, appeared as a cul 
prit before the convention, whose jurisdiction he did not chal • 
ienge. His countenance was firm and noble ; his answers were 
precise, touching, and almost always triumphant. Conducted 
back to the Temple, he demanded a defender, and named Tar- 
get and Tronchet. The first of these refused the office, and the 
venerable Malesherbes ofiered himself in his place, and wrote 
to the convention in these memorable words : " Twice have 1 
}>een called to the councils of him who was my master, in the 
days when that function was an object of ambition to all men. 
I owe him the same service, now that it is one which many find 
dangerous." His request, which was granted, deeply affected 
Louis XVI. When he appeared before him, the monarch 
pressed him in his arms, and said, with tears in his eyes, "You 



540 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

expose your own life, and will not save mine," Tronchet an»l 
Malesherbes immediately set about the preparation of the king's 
defence, and associated with themselves M. de Seze, by whom 
it was pronounced, and who concluded his pathetic pleading by 
these true and solemn words : "Placed on the throne at twenty 
years of age, Louis carried thither the example of morality, 
justice, and economy. He brought with him no weakness, and 
no corrupt passions. He was the unvarying friend of his peo- 
ple. That people desired the destruction of a burdensome im- 
post, and Louis destroyed it ; the people desired the abolition 
of servitude, and Louis abolished it ; the people solicited re- 
forms, and Louis gave them ; the people sought to alter its laws, 
the king consented; the people desired that their alienated 
rights should be restored to millions of Frenchmen, and Louis 
restored them ; the people sighed for liberty, and the king be- 
stowed it. The glory cannot be denied to Louis of having even 
anticipated the wishes of his people in his sacrifices, and yet he 

it is whom you are asked to . Citizens, I dare not speak 

it ! I pause before the majesty of history. Remember that 
history shall hereafter judge your judgment of to-day, and that 
the judgment of history will be that of ages !" But the pas- 
sions of the judges were blind and implacable ; a unanimous 
vote declared Louis guilty, and the appeal to the people which 
the Girondins demanded was refused. 

It only now remained to decide what punishment should be 
inflicted. The ferment in Paris was at its height ; a furious 
multitude surrounded the door of the assembly, denouncing 
frightful menaces against all who should incline to mercy. At 
length, after forty hours of nominal deliberation, the president 
Vergniaud announced the result of the votes. Out of one hun- 
dred and twenty-one, there was a majority of twenty-six for 
death. Malesherbes endeavoured to address the assembly, but 
his voice was choked by sobs. A respite was demanded, but 
in vain; and the fatal sentence was pronounced. Louis had 
one last and heartrending interview with his family after his 
condemnation, and then prepared himself for death. He slept 
calmly, received the offices of the church, and confided his last 
wishes to his faithful and only remaining servant, Cldry. 
Shortly afterwards, Santerre arrived, and Louis went forth to 
execution. He ascended the scafibld with a firm step, and on 



TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF LOUIS XVI. 



541 



his knees received the benediction of the priest, who thus ad- 
dressed him : " Son of Saint Louis, ascend to heaven !" He 
then suffered his hands to be tied, and turned to the multitude. 
"I die innocent," he said ; " I forgive my foes ; and for you, 
oh ! wretched people" — ! Here his voice was drowned in the 
roll of the drums, the executioners seized him, and in another 
instant he had ceased to live. Thus perished, on the 21st of 
January, 1793, after a reign of seventeen years, one of those 
kings who have most illustrated the throne by their virtues. 
He had the honesty of intention necessary for originating re- 
forms, but wanted the strength of character necessary for their 
enforcement — the firmness which might have enabled him to 
direct the revolution and bring it to a favourable issue. 




M2 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



VENDEAN WAR— DESERTION OF DUMOURIEZ. 




FTER the outrage of the 21st of 
January, indignant Europe flew to 
arms with one accord. From that 
moment, the revolution reckoned 
as its declared enemies England, 
Holland, Spain, the whole of the 
Germanic confederation, Bavaria, 
Swabia, the elector Palatine, Na- 
ples, and the Holy See, and after- 
ward Russia. Almost at the same 
time, too. La Vendue assumed a 
menacing and formidable aspect. 
France had to contend, besides her enemies at home, against 
three hundred and fifty thousand of the best troops in Europe, 
who were advancing upon all the frontiers of the republic. To 
meet dangers so alarming, Danton and the Mountain party, who 
had adopted him as their chief, by their discourses and by 
means of insurrections, aroused the enthusiasm and fanaticism 
of the populace in the names of libertyj equality, and frater- 
nity, and kept it in that perpetual condition of violent crisis 
that they might be enabled to dispose of its passions and its 
madness. Danton it was who founded the despotism of the 
multitude, under the name of revolutionary government. A 
levy of three hundred thousand men was ordered, and a tribu- 
nal extraordinary created, consisting of nine members, commis- 
sioned to punish the domestic enemies of the revolution, and 
whose decrees were to be without appeal. The Girondins con- 
tended against an institution at once so arbitrary and so formi- 
dable ; but their resistance was in vain. Stigmatized with the 
titles of intriguers and foes to the people, already was their 
:lestruction determined on. Marat and Robespierre incited the 



VENDEA?< WAR. 543 

multitude to the extremes of violence against that party, and a 
project for assassinating the entire body, in a nocturnal insur- 
rection, was formed by the Jacobins and Cordeliers, which, 
however, miscarried. On the following day,Vergniaud ascended 
the tribune, and there denounced these murderous designs. 
" Our march," said he, " is from crime to amnesty, and from 
amnesty to crime. A majority of our citizens have arrived at 
the point of confounding the insurrections of sedition with the 
great insurrection of freedom, and mistaking the outrages of 
brigands for the explosions of ardent souls ! Citizens, it is but 
too greatly to be feared that the revolution, like Saturn, will 
devour all her children, one after the other, and nourish only 
despotism, with the multitude of calamities which follow in its 
train." Prophetic, but fruitless warnings ! The insurrection 
of La Vendue redoubled the daring of the Jacobins. Already 
partial troubles had broken out in that portion of Brittany and 
Poitou, nearly covered, as it was, with woods, without roads or 
commerce, and where the absence of trade, by preventing the 
development of the middling classes, closed up the avenues to 
knowledge. There the ancient manners had been preserved, 
accompanied by the prejudices and customs of feudalism ; and 
there the rural population still remained submissive to their 
priests and nobles. These latter had not followed the tide of 
emigration. The requisition of three hundred thousand men 
was followed by the breaking forth of the insurrection gene- 
rally throughout La Vendue. Its first leaders were the wagoner 
Cathelineau, Charette, a naval officer, and the gamekeeper Stof- 
flet. Nine hundred communes rose at the sound of the tocsin, 
and the principal nobles, Bonchamps, Lescure, Laroche-Jacque- 
lin, D'Elbde, and Talmont joined the insurgents, and eagerly 
seconded the movement. They defeated the troops of the line 
and battalions of the national guard which marched against 
them. All things, in fact, yielded before the passionate intre- 
pidity of the Vendean peasants. Without arms, they seized 
on the artillery by precipitating themselves upon the cannon 
which mowed them down. One after the other, the republican 
generals, Marc^, Gauvilliers, Qu^tineau, and Ligonnier were 
overthrown. The victorious Vendeans, masters of several 
strongholds, formed three corps of from ten to twelve thousand 
men each. The first of these, under Bonchamps, occupied the 



544 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

banks of the Loire, and was called the army of Anjou ; the 
second, under D'Elb^e, occupied the centre, and was distin- 
guished as the grand army; und the third formed the army 
called that of the Marais, under Charette, and occupied the 
lower Vendue. A council of operations was established, and 
Cathelineau proclaimed generalissimo. This formidable revolt 
provoked from the convention measures still more rigorous 
against the priests and nobles. All who joined any assembly 
were outlawed, the property of emigrants was confiscated, and 
the revolutionary tribunal entered on its terrible functions. 
Another enemy likewise declared himself about this time. Du- 
mouriez, after an unsuccessful invasion of Holland, had lost the 
battle of Nerwinde against the prince of Coburg, commander- 
in-chief of the Austrian army, and been compelled to evacuate 
Belgium. Long at open war with the Jacobins, he had con- 
templated their overthrow and the restoration of the constitiv 
tional monarchy. After his defeat at Nerwinde, finding himself 
more than ever exposed to their furious attacks, he meditated a 
desertion from the cause of the republic, and formed the pro- 
ject of marching upon Paris in concert with the Austrians. It 
is to be presumed that his design was to cause the young due 
de Chartres (then in his camp, and who had distinguished him- 
self at Valmy and Jemmapes) to be crowned. He offered to 
the Austrians several strongholds, as a guarantee of his inten- 
tions ; but he failed in the attempt to get possession of these 
places, and at the same time completed his OAvn exposure to the 
convention. That body, informed of his designs, summoned 
him to appear instantly at its bar, and, on his refusal, sent the 
minister of war, Beurnonville, and four deputies, Camus, Qui- 
nette, Lamarque, and Bancal, commissioned to bring him before 
them, or arrest him in the midst of his army. Dumouriez de-' 
livered them up to the Austrians ; but he had reckoned too 
confidently on the afi"ection of his troops. The republican en- 
thusiasm took possession of them, and Dumouriez found him- 
self abandoned. He had then no other resource than to pasa 
over to the camp of the Austrians. 



FALL OF THE GIRONDINS. 



545 



FALL OF THE GIRONDINS. 




iHE Girondins had been as 
earnest as the Mountain par- 
ty in their condemnation of 
Dumouriez. They were, ne- 
vertheless, accused of being 
his accomplices ; and Verg- 
niaud, Brissot, Guadet, Gen- 
sonn^, and Pdtion became 
the special objects of the 
atrocious persecutions of 
Robespierre and Marat. For 
one moment, they assumed 
an attitude of energy ; and 
denounced Marat before the revolutionary tribunal. He was 
acquitted, however, and carried in triumph into the assembly ; 
and, from that day, the sans-culottes occupied the avenues and 
galleries of the chamber. Guadet proposed vigorous measures 
for releasing the assembly from the tyranny of the Jacobins and 
the citizens, — such, for example, as the abolition of the muni- 
cipal body, and the removal of the convention to Bourges. 
Barrere, however, procured the adoption of a middle course ; 
and the assembly created a committee of twelve members, com- 
missioned to watch the proceedings of the municipal body, and 
to arrest the authors of plots against the national representation. 
A war of extermination, which finally proved fatal to the Gi- 
ronde, immediately sprang up between it and the municipality. 
The commission of Twelve, in the first instance, spread terror 
through that body, by the arrest of the infamous Hubert, the 
author of the execrable pamphlet of the JPere Duchesne, whom 
they seized in the very midst of the municipality. The Jaco- 
bins, the Cordeliers, and the sections declared their sittings 
permanent, and organized a formidable insurrection, under the 



69 



2 V 2 



546 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

direction of Danton. An immense multitude marched to the 
assembly ; where their deputies, being admitted, boldly de- 
manded the release of Hdbert, and the dissolution of the 
Twelve. The Girondins resisted ; but the Montagnards and 
the sans-culottes in the galleries broke out into vociferations and 
menaces against them. The sitting was prolonged, am:d fear- 
ful disorder ; and at length, amid darkness, shouts, and tumult, 
the petitioners, confounded with the Montagnards on the same 
benches, passed a vote for the suppression of the Twelve, and 
the enlargement of the prisoners. This decree was revoked on 
the following day ; and the corporation, the Jacobins, and the 
sections renewed their agitation. Robespierre, Marat, Danton, 
Chaumette, and Pache, the mayor of Paris, combined to con- 
duct this second insurrection, which was more formidable than 
that which preceded it. Henriot commanded the armed force ; 
and forty sous a day were promised to each of the sans-culottes. 
for so long as they should continue under arms. Alarm-guns 
were fired, the tocsin was sounded, and the insurgents marched 
against the convention. The Tuileries, where that body sat. 
was blockaded, and all free deliberation rendered impossible. 
Barrire, therefore, and the committee of public safety, with 
whom the committee of Twelve had originated, demanded its 
suppression, which was definitively decreed. This was enough 
for Danton ; but not for Robespierre, Marat, and the corpora- 
tion. " We must not," said a Jacobin deputy, " suffer the people 
to cool." Henriot placed the armed force which he commanded 
at the disposal of the club, and the arrest of the Girondin de- 
puties was determined on. Marat himself sounded the tocsin, — 
Henriot commanded the movement, — and, on the 2d of June, 
eighty thousand armed men surrounded the convention. The 
intrepid Lanjuinais flew to the tribune, interrupted by furious 
vociferations, and denounced the projects of the factious. 
"Paris is pure," he cried, "but Paris is misled and oppressed 
by tyrants who thirst for blood, and long for power." He con- 
cluded by proposing that all the revolutionary authorities of 
the capital should be dissolved. The insurgent petitioners en- 
tered the hall, at this moment, and demanded his arrest and 
that of his colleagues. A violent debate ensued, and was pro- 
ceeding, when the deputy Lacroix rushed into the chamber, 
complained of the outrages which he had suffered from the 



FALL OF THE GIRONDINS. 



647 



multitude, and declared that the convention was coerced. Even 
the Montagnards themselves were indignant ; and Danton ex- 
claimed, that it became them to avenge the insult to the national 
majesty. The convention rose in a body, and set forward, with 
its president at its head. On the Place du Carrousel, it was met 
by Henriot, on horseback, and sabre in hand. " What is it that 
the people demand ?" said the president, H^rault de Sdchelles ; 
"the convention is occupied only for its good." "The people 
have not risen to listen to set phrases," replied Henriot ; " they 
require that twenty-four of the culprits shall be delivered up to 
them." "Let us all be delivered up !" exclaimed the deputies. 
Henriot pointed his cannon against them, — and the convention 
fell back. Surrounded on all sides, they returned, discouraged, 
to the hall of session ; the arrest of the proscribed members was 
no longer opposed by them, and Marat decided, like a dictator, 
upon their fate. Twenty-four illustrious Girondins were con- 
fined to their own houses by the assembly, and the appeased 
multitude dispersed ; but, from that day, the party of the Gi- 
ronde was broken down, and the convention was no longer free. 




548 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




FALL OF DANTON. 

ANTON, and his friends Camille 
Desmoulins, Philippeaux, Ldcroix, 
Fabre d'Eglantine, and Westermann, 
sought to restore legal order; and 
^^ with that view desired to arrest the 

action of the revolutionary tribunal, to empty 
the prisons filled with suspected persons, and 
to dissolve the committees. With this view, 
Camille Desmoulins, a man full of talent and energy, produced, 
under the name of the Vieux Cordelier, a journal inveighing 
against the despotism of the dictators. The most formidable of 
these was Robespierre ; and Camille and his friends endeavoured 
to gain him over. But Robespierre played them one against 
the other; and, affecting neutrality between the adverse parties, 
meditated the overthrow of their chiefs, by each other's means. 
His colleagues in the committee of public safety were furious 
against Camille and the Dantonists ; and Robespierre abandoned 
these latter to them — obtaining from them, in return, the heads 
of Hubert, Clootz, Chaumette, Ronsin, and the principal anar- 
chists of the commune. This compact being concluded, he 
ascended the tribune, and denounced to the convention, as foes 
to the republic, the ultra-revolutionists, on the one hand, and the 
Dantonists (whom he designated as the moderes — « moderates ') 
on the other. He was followed by Saint-Just, who spoke to the 
same effect, — thundering against the enemies of virtue and those 
of the terror government, to which he procured to be given the 
most extensive powers for the punishment of the parties in question. 
The anarchists of the commune, Hubert, Clootz, Ronsin, and their 
accomplices, were first seized and condemned, and most of them 
died cowards. The revolutionary army was broken up ; and the 
convention compelled the commune to appear at its bar, and 
thank it for the very acts by which the power of the latter body 



FALL OF DANTON. 



54"J 



was annulled. But the time of the Dantonists, too, was come. 
Representing, as they did, the old Mountain party, their names, 
especially that of their chief, seemed as yet, all-powerful. 
Warned of the hostile intentions of his enemies, Danton replied, 
as did of old the due de Guise, "They dare not !" But the com- 
mittee rightly reckoned on the terror of the assembly ; and the 
Dantonists were arrested on the 10th Germinal, (1794.) Robes- 
pierre prevented their being heard in the assembly. " We will 
see, this day," he said, " if the convention dares to break down a 
pretended idol, which has long since fallen into decay, or if that 
idol, in its overthrow, is to crush the convention and the people 
of France." Saint-Just read the report against the accused par- 
ties; and the assembly, stupified by terror, ordered that they 
should be sent to trial. Arraigned before the revolutionary 
tribunal, they distinguished themselves by their boldness, and 
the scorn which they exhibited towards their judges. On their 
being condemned, Danton exclaimed: "We are sacrificed to 
the ambition of a few dastardly brigands ; but they shall not long 
enjoy their triumph. I drag after me Robespierre — Robespierre 
shall follow me." They advanced with firmness to the place of 
execution, amid a silent multitude. From that moment, no voice 
was, for some time, raised against the decemvirs ; and the con- 
vention proclaimed that terror and all the virtues were the order 
of the day. 




550 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 

(EARIED out and disgusted by the atroci- 
ties by which the republic was disgraced 
at home, a certain number of the Moun- 
tain party resolved to bring them to a 
close, and to avenge Danton, Camille Des- 
moulins, and the rest of their slaughtered 
friends. At the head of these were Tallien, Bourdon de I'Oise, 
and Legendre. They were supported, in the committee of pub- 
lic safety, by Billaud-Varennes and Collot d'Herbois, both of 
whom were jealous of the authority assumed by the triumvirs, 
and, in that for the general security, by Vadier, Voulant, and 
Amar, all of whom belonged to the overthrown faction of the 
commune. Irritated by their obstinate resistance, Robespierre 
had determined upon crushing and immolating them ; and they 
felt that they must be beforehand with him, or be his victims. 
They began by accusing him of tyranny in the committees, and 
designating him under the name of Pisistratus. Next, they 
reproached him with a desire to pass himself off for a messen- 
ger from God, by encouraging certain mysterious assemblies, 
held by an old Chartreux friar, Don Guerle, and an absurd fana- 
tic, named Catherine Th^ot, whom they sent to execution, in 
spite of his opposition. From that moment, Robespierre sel- 
dom appeared in the committees, but established the centre of 
his power in the club of the Jacobins, from whence he denounced 
those whom he called Dantonist's. All-powerful in this body, 
master of the lower orders, and supported by Fleuriot, the 
mayor, by Henriot, the commandant of the armed force, and 
by the revolutionary tribunal, all the members of which wer*, 
his creatures, he thought himself strong enough to comment/;* 
the attack, in the very heart of the convention ; and, on the 
8th Thermidor, he there denounced the committees. He waa 



FALL OF ROBESPIERRE, 551 

heard in silence ; and experienced his first check by having his 
discourse referred to the examination of those same committees 
whom he had accused. In the evening, he repaired to the 
Jacobins, and there gave vent to his anger. He Avas enthusi- 
astically received ; and, during the night, all things were pre- 
pared by his party for an insurrection ; while a league was 
formed, among the conventionalists, between the Dantonists, 
the party of the right, and the Marais. Under these threat- 
ening auspices, opened the sitting of the 9th Thermidor. Saint- 
Just ascended the tribune, in front of which sat Robespierre. 
He was interrupted by Tallien and Billaud, who commenced 
the attack. Robespierre rushed forward to reply ; but was 
met, on all sides, by the cry of— J. has le tyran ! Tallien 
waved in his hand a poniard, with which he threatened to pierce 
the heart of Robespierre, whom he denounced as another Crom- 
well! He succeeded in obtaining a decree for the arrest of 
Henriot, and a declaration of the assembly that its sitting was 
permanent. Barrere caused it to place itself under the protec- 
tion of the armed sections. "Now, let us think about the 
tyrant !" resumed Tallien; while overwhelming cries of menace 
prevented Robespierre from being heard. He made, however, 
one final effort: — "President of murderers !" he cried, "for 
the last time, I ask, will you give me a hearing ?" Unable to 
obtain it, he stormed like a madman, flew from bench to bench 
of the assembly, and addressed himself, with supplications, to 
the members of the right, who turned from him with loathing. 
At length he fell back in his seat, exhausted with fatigue, and 
foaming at the mouth. " Wretch !" cried a member to him, 
"the blood of Danton chokes thee !" His arrest was forthwith 
proposed ; and his brother and Lebas demanded to share his 
fate. The assembly unanimously ordered that they should be 
seized, along with Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just ; and 
delivered them into the hands of the gendarmes. " The re- 
public," exclaimed Robespierre, "is lost, and the brigands 
triumph !" The victory, however, was still undecided ; the 
Jacobins had likewise declared themselves permanent, swearing 
to die rather than live under a reign of crime. The municipal 
deputies repaired to their assembly ; and Henriot traversed 
the streets, sabre in hand, and shouting, " To arms !" He was 
arrested, however, along with the national agent, Payan, and 



052 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

bound with cords. During the day the convention was triumph- 
ant, and in the evening the insurgents were once more upper- 
most. They marched in a body on the prisons, and delivered 
Robespierre, Henriot, and their accomplices. Henriot immedi- 
ately caused the convention to be surrounded, and pointed the 
cannon against it. Terror reigned in the assembly ; but the 
very imminence of the peril inspired them with vigorous reso- 
lutions. Henriot was outlawed ; his gunners refused to fire, 
and fell back with him upon the Hotel de Ville. This refusal 
decided the success of the day. The convention, in its turn, 
resumed the ofiensive, attacked the commune, and outlawed its 
rebel members. Barras was named commander-in-chief of the 
armed force ; the battalions of the sections swore to defend the 
assembly, and defiled in the chamber, before it, animated by 
Fr^ron. "Set forward !" cried the president, "that day may 
not dawn ere the heads of the conspirators have fallen." It 
was midnight when the armed bands marched against the com- 
mune ; whither Robespierre had been borne in triumph, and 
where he now sat motionless, and paralyzed by terror. On the 
Place de Greve the multitude read the proclamation of the 
assembly, by which the commune was outlawed ; and the terri- 
fied groups dispersed, leaving the place deserted. The H6tel 
de Ville was surrounded, amid cries of Vive la convention ! 
The proscribed parties abandoned themselves to rage and de- 
spair. Robespierre fractured his own jaw with a blow from a 
pistol; Lebas killed himself; the younger Robespierre threw 
himself out from a window of the third story, but survived the 
fall ; Couthon stabbed himself, with a trembling hand, and 
without fatal effect ; Coffinhal overwhelmed Henriot with im- 
precations, and flung him from a window into a drain. The 
conquerors arrived, and seized their prisoners ; and on the fol- 
lowing day they were led to execution. An immense multitude 
crowded around the cart in which Robespierre, his head bound 
with a bloody cloth, lay betwixt Henriot and Couthon, both 
mutilated, li,ke himself. The people interchanged congratula- 
tions and embraces before his eyes ; curses were poured out 
against him ; and, at the moment when his head fell beneath 
the knife, long salvos of acclamation arose from the crowd- 
France breathed afresh — and the reign of terror was at an end. 




70 



2 W 



BONAPARTE'S FIRST CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 



555 




BONAPARTE'S FIRST CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 



IT was in 1796 that Bonaparte, 
then twenty-six years of age, 
was achieving the prodigies of 
his Italian campaign. His first 
proclamation inflamed the ar- 
dour of his soldiers, and his 
words were justified by deeds. 
The victories of Montenotte 
and Millesimo were the bril- 
liant coup d'essai of the young 
general, powerfully seconded 
by his lieutenants, Augereau, 
Serrurier, Massena, La Harpe, 
Murat, and Joubert. Besides these, he had under his orders 
Belliard, Berthier, Colonel Rampon, and the illustrious Lannes, 
then a simple chef de hataillon. All these men were destined 
to a glorious celebrity. The Austrian generals Beaulieu and 
Colli retired before Bonaparte, who crossed the Alps and gained 
the battle of Mondovi, thereby subjecting Piedmont to his arms. 
Victor Amadeus III. accepted peace from the conqueror, and 
withdrew from the coalition. All the roads which communi- 
cated with France were occupied by the troops of the republic. 




556 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




Bonaparte deceived the Austrians by fictitious manoeuvres, 
passed the Po, and laid the duke of Parma under contribution. 
He triumphed at Lodi, and at the passage of the Adda, where 
his grenadiers carried with the bayonet a bridge which was swept 
by the enemy's guns. From that moment, his army became in- 
vincible. Beaulieu effected his retreat, abandoning behind him 
Cremona, Milan, Pa via, Como, and Cassano, — into which places 
the French entered. Bonaparte received the submission of the 
town of Genoa, and that of Hercules d'Este, duke of Modena. 
That prince paid to the French ten millions, and retired to 
Venice. General Vaubois took possession of Leghorn, where 
six hundred Corsicans had taken refuge. These Bonaparte sent 
back to their island, to get up an insurrection against the 
English; who were, in consequence, expelled thence. The 
conqueror imposed on the pope, as the conditions of peace, a pay- 
ment of twenty-one millions, and one hundred master-pieces 
from his museums. The king of Naples was taxed at six mil- 
lions. Bonaparte then marched upon Vienna ; and the army 
of the Sambre and Meuse, under Jourdan, and that of the 
Rhine, under Moreau, moved in the same direction. The arch- 
duke Charles, the emperor's brother, was commander-in-chief 
of the Austrian army ; and Moreau began by gaining from him 
four consecutive victories. He was, then, about to join his 
forces with those of Jourdan, when, inspired by the danger 
in which he saw himself placed, the archduke detached thirty 




GENERAL HOOHI 



2w2 



BONAPARTE'S FIRST CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 



559 




BATTLE OP ARCOLE. 



thousand men, whom he sent against the advanced guard of 
Jour dan, overthrew it, cut off the communication between the 
two armies, and crushed that of the Sambre and Mouse, com- 
pelling it to fall back, in the greatest disorder, on the point 
from whence it had set out. He then directed his entire forces 
against Moreau ; who, master of Ulm and encamped at the 
gates of Munich, covered an immense ground, and reckoned on 
the army of Jourdan to maintain himself there. Deprived of 
this succour, he commanded, and executed an admirable retreat, 
traversing more than one hundred leagues of country, in pre- 
sence of a formidable enemy, and in the midst of a hostile popu- 
lation, and re-entered Friburg, without having suffered his line 
oJ march to be once broken. 

Bonaparte, however, continued to triumph over all obstacles, 
and approached Mantua. He blockaded that place, and en- 
tered the territory of the city of Venice, which was ruined by 
its neutrality. Old Wurmser raised the blockade of Mantua ; 
Bonaparte triumphed in the celebrated battles of Castiglione 
and Lonato ; but a skilful march brought Wurmser with thirty 
thousand men into Mantua. Bonaparte turned the place, block- 
aded it anew, and gained the brilliant victory of Arcole, where 
he performed prodigies of valour, and exposed himself to great 
dangers. The victory of Rivoli, (1797,) in which Joubert had 



560 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

a great share, followed closely upon that of Arcole ; and the 
pope, who had, at length, taken up arms at the instigation of 
Austria, was compelled to give in his suhmission. Wurmser, 
pressed hy famine in Mantua, determined upon capitulating, 
and all Europe rang with the name of the conqueror. From 
that moment, Bonaparte foresaw the great destiny that awaited 
him, and neglected no means of fortune or fame. In the in- 
tervals of his battles, he conversed with savants and poets, ex- 
tolled the republic, and in all things gave evidence of the future 
ruler. Affable with his lieutenants and soldiers, to the directors 
he exhibited a haughty reserve, and had, at the same time, the 
art to make his presence at the head of his triumphant army 
appear to them indispensable. He availed himself of the popu- 
lar sympathies against governments ; and transformed Lombardy 
into a Cisalpine republic, of which Milan became the capital. 
Numerous reinforcements having reached him from France, he 
marched again upon Vienna, having Prince Charles in his front. 
Massena commanded the advanced guard, and immortalized him- 
self by his victories at Tagliamento and elsewhere. Carinthia 
and Styria were rapidly subdued ; terror reigned at Vienna ; 
and Bonaparte awaited the movements of the other armies to 
penetrate further. Hoche commanded that of the Sambre and 
Meuse ; and Moreau retained that of the Rhine. Their pro- 
gress was slow ; and Joubert, whom Bonaparte had left behind, 
Avith three divisions, for the defence of the Tyrol, was beaten 
by Prince Charles, and compelled to retreat. Informed of this 
reverse, Bonaparte sent to Vienna to treat for peace ; and an 
armistice was concluded at Leoben. The French general ceded 
to Austria Mantua and a portion of Venetian Lombardy which 
he had conquered, in exchange for the Cisalpine republic which 
he had founded. The directory rejected these preliminaries ; 
and Bonaparte suggested Venice to Austria, as an indemnity 
for Mantua. The fate of that republic was, accordingly, de- 
cided. The French emissaries, everywhere, excited the people 
against the senate ; but at Verona, a city dependent on Venice, 
the French garrison was slaughtered in a popular revolt. Bona- 
parte, who sought but a pretext to justify an act of spoliation, 
inveighed furiously against the Venetian republic, and demanded 
vengeance for the massacre of Verona. Nothing could appease 
him ; and General Paraguay d'Hilliers marched against Venice. 



BONAPARTE'S FIRST CAMPAIGN IN ITALY. 



56c 



Alarmed at his approach, the senate voted a constitution, in the 
hope of conciliating France, and then dissolved itself. The 
French entered the city ; and, by the definitive treaty of Campo 
Formio, delivered it to Austria, in exchange for the Belgic and 
Lombard states. Mantua was added to the Cisalpine republic ; 
as were also the Bolognese and Romagna. The congress of 
Radstadt was opened, at the same time, to treat of peace with 
the empire. The release of General La Fayette and his three 
companions in misfortune was one of the articles of the glorious 
treaty of Campo Formio. All the combined powers, with the 
exception of England, had laid down their arms ; and France 
had extended her system in Europe, — a great portion of her 
frontiers, from the North Sea to the gulf of Genoa, being co- 
vered by republican states. 




564 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




8UEEENDEE OP CAIEO. 



BONAPARTE'S EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. 



HIS expedition appears to have 
been planned by the French Di- 
rectory for the purpose of em- 
ploying their army, and acquiring 
glory for the republic. The com- 
mand was given to Napoleon Bo- 
naparte, who departed from Tou- 
lon with a fleet of four hundred 
sail, accompanied by a body of 
celebrated savants, and a portion 
of the army of Italy. On his 
way he took possession of the 
island of Malta, and then made 
sail for the coast of Egypt. (1798.) 

The expedition to Egypt was a brilliant one. The Mame- 
lukes, a body of cavalry independent of the Porte, and of sove- 
reign authority in Egypt, oppressed that unhappy country at 
the period of Bonaparte's landing, and alone offered a gallant 
resistance to his arms. In the first conflict, which took place 
in the village of Chebreissa, Bonaparte was the conqueror ; that 
victory was closely followed by the brilliant one of the pyra- 





2X 



BONAPARTE'S EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. 



5G7 



^^F^^^^^^^^^^ 




BATTLE OF THK NILE. 



mids ; Cairo opened its gates on the ensuing day ; and Rosetta 
and Damietta surrendered. Mourad Bey, the chief of the 
Mamelukes, retired into Upper Egypt ; and there Desaix, 
despatched in pursuit of him, at once displayed extraordinary 
talents, and won blessings for his justice and moderation. About 
the same time the English admiral. Nelson, gave a mortal blow 
to the navy of France. Admiral Brueys having imprudently 
anchored the French fleet in the roads of Aboukir, Nelson at- 
tacked it there, and completely destroyed it. Bonaparte, how 
ever, took great pains to gain the afi"ections of the Egyptians, 
by conforming to their usages, and quoting the Koran as autho- 
rity for his decrees. He relieved, at the same time, from the 
hereditary oppression to which they were subjected, the Chris- 
tians called Cophts, considered to be the descendants of the 
ancient Egyptians — and founded an institute at Cairo. Then, 
after having extinguished a formidable revolt, got up in that 
city against his army by the Ottoman Porte, he quitted the 
scene of his conquest, for the purpose of undertaking that of 
Syria, intending from thence to penetrate into India, and there 
strike the English in one of the sources of their power. His 
army traversed sixty leagues of burning desert, to march upon 
Gaza, which opened its gates. Jaffa and Ka'iffa were carried, 
and Saint- John-of- Acre invested. But Bonaparte wanted siege- 



568 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




KEVOLT OF CAIRO. 



artillery ; and made seventeen furious but fruitless assaults upon 
this place, defended by the joint talents of the French engineer 
Ph^lippeaux, and the English commodore, Sir Sidney Smith. 
His army was surrounded by the Turks ; but they were defeated 




SIEOE OF ACRE. 



at JNazareth, by Junot: and Bonaparte, assisted byKl^ber and 
Murat, gained the celebrated battle of Mount Tabor. After 
this victory, he raised the siege of Acre, and returned to Cairo ; 
where he learned, by the journals, the events of the 30th Prai- 
rial, and the disturbed situation of the republic. Anarchy 




72 



2x2 



BONAPARTE'S EXPEDITION TO EGYPT. 



571 



reigned at home ; a second forced loan had excited the indigna- 
tion of the middling classes : while the odious law of hostages, 
which rendered the relatives of emigrants responsible for the 
outrages committed by the Chouans, once more armed the roy- 
alists of the west and south against the Directory. Italy, with 
the exception of Genoa, was lost. Joubert had been killed at 
the bloody battle of Novi, gained by Suwarrow ; and the allies 
were advancing on the French frontiers, through Holland and 
Switzerland, where they were arrested by Brune and Massena. 
Informed of this state of things and minds, Bonaparte deter- 
mined to overthrow the directorial government, and to repair at 
once to France, whither he was preceded by the intelligence of 
a new and brilliant victory. Eighteen thousand Turks having 
landed in the bay of Aboukir, Bonaparte, supported by Murat, 
Lannes, and Bessi^res, fell upon this army and annihilated it. 
Immediately after this victory he set out, leaving Kl^ber* in 
command of the army of Egypt ; crossed the Mediterranean in 
the frigate Le Murion ; escaped, as by miracle, from the Eng- 
lish fleet ; and landed in the gulf of Fr^jus, on the 9th of 
October, 1799 — a- few days after the celebrated victories of Zu- 
rich and Berghen, gained, the first over the Austrians, by Mas- 
sena, and the second by General Brune, over the duke of York. 

* Kleberwas subsequently assassinated in Egypt. His death took place on 
the same day, June 14th, 1800, as that of Desaix, at Marengo. 




BATTLE OP TUB PYRAMID 



572 



INCIDENTS OP MODERN HISTORY. 



REVOLUTION OF THE 18th BRUMAIRE. 




gONAPARTE traversed France 
as a conqueror, and was received 
•with enthusiasm by the masses of 
the moderate party in Paris. He 
■now altered his line of conduct. 
^Hitherto he had refrained from 
|attaching himself to any system. 
jAfifecting great simplicity, and 
locoupying modest apartments in 
ithe Rue Chantereine, he saw him- 
self courted by the heads of each 
party, and deceived them all. Sieyes dreaded him ; but the sup- 
port of a military chief was essential to the execution of his de- 
signs. Bonaparte was in a condition to aid him, and in the end 
Sieyes and he came to an understanding. Their object was to 
overthrow the constitution ; and with this view the generals, 
with the exception of Bernadotte, were gained over — as was also 
the garrison of Paris. On the 18th Brumaire, on the demand 
of Regnier, one of the conspirators, the council of the anciens 
declared that, in virtue of the right which the constitution gave 
it, it transferred the legislative body to Saint-Cloud, under the 
pretext that its deliberations would there be more free. Bona- 
parte was charged with the execution of this measm-e, and in- 
vested with the military command of the division of Paris. He 
immediately attacked the Directory by speeches and by procla- 
mations. "What," said he, "have you done with that France 
which I left to you so covered with glory ? I left with you 
peace, and I return to find war ; — I left victories, and I find 



REVOLUTION OF THE 18th BRUMAIRE. 573 

but disasters. What have you done with a hundred thousand 
Frenchmen of my acquaintance — the companions of my fame ? 
— they are dead." In this manner, while accusing his adver- 
saries, he contrived to insinuate his own vast importance. On 
the same day, Sieyes and Roger-Ducos repaired to the Tuileries 
and laid down their authority. Their three colleagues would 
have resisted, but their own guard refused obedience to them. 
Barras, losing all hope, sent in his resignation ; Moulins and 
Gohier were detained prisoners : and the struggle was now 
to commence between Bonaparte and the council of the cinq- 
cents. 

On the 19th Brumaire, the legislative body repaired to Saint- 
Cloud, accompanied by an imposing armed force. Bonaparte 
presented himself first before the council of the anciens ; and 
being summoned to take the constitutional oath, he declared 
that the constitution was vicious, and the Directory incapable, 
and appealed to his companions in arms. From thence he 
repaired to the council of the einq-eents, which sat in the 
Orangery, and where the agitation was already at its height. 
His presence raised a violent storm : — « Outlaw him ! Down 
with the dictator !" resounded on every side. Accustomed to 
orave an enemy's fire, rather than the menaces of a deliberative 
assembly, Bonaparte grew pale and agitated, and was hurried 
away by the grenadiers who formed his escort. The tumult 
continued to rage in the chamber, where Lucien, the brother 
of Napoleon, presided, and attempted his defence. On all sides 
the outlawry of the tyrant was loudly called for ; and Lucien, 
being required to put the question to the vote, quitted the chair, 
and divested himself of the insignia of the magistracy. Bona- 
parte had him carried from the hall ; and both brothers, mounting 
on horseback, harangued the soldiers — one as the conqueror of 
Italy and Egypt, and the other as president of a factious assem- 
bly. The enthusiasm of the troops broke loudly forth ; and 
Bonaparte, addressing them, exclaimed ; — " Soldiers ! can I 
reckon upon you?" — "Yes! yes!" resounded on all sides; 
and Bonaparte immediately ordered the council of the cinq- 
cents to be expelled. A troop of grenadiers entered the hall, 
under the command of Murat, who said : — " In the name of 
General Bonaparte, the legislative body is dissolved. Let all 
good citizens retire ! — Grenadiers, advance !" The shouts of 



574 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



indignation which arose in answer were drowned in the roll of 
the drums : the grenadiers advanced, and the deputies fled 
before them, escaping by the windows, amid cries of Vive la 
repuhlique ! Freedom of representation was, on that day, at 
an end ; and of the French republic there now remained nothing 
but the name. 




CAMPAIGNS OF AUSTERLITZ. 



577 



CAMPAIGN OF AUSTERLITZ. 




AD Napoleon, after the peace of 
Amiens, preferred the interests of 
France to those of his own ambition, 
he might have secured to the nation 
the fruits of twelve years of internal 
and external struggle, and become the 
moderator of Europe. But he chose 
rather to be its sovereign, and, keep- 
ing his eyes steadily fixed on the great 
image of Charlemagne, believed that 
he was himself summoned to the same 
high destinies. His first object of 
ambition was to add to the title of 
emperor of the French that of king 
of Italy; and the representatives of 
the Cisalpine republic decided that 
their country should be erected into a 
kingdom in his favour. Napoleon set out instantly for Milan, 
where he put on the iron crown of the Lombard kings, and ap- 
pointed Eugene de Beauharnois, his step-son, viceroy of Italy. 
The establishment of this kingdom, the annexation to the em- 
pire of the territory of Genoa and that of Piedmont, and the 
eflForts of the English cabinet, once more directed by Mr. Pitt, 
revolted Austria, and united that country, England, and Russia, 
(where the emperor Alexander had succeeded to his murdered 
father,) in a third coalition against France. Napoleon was at 
this time at Boulogne, meditating a descent upon England, and 
preparing a formidable armament for that purpose. On learn- 
ing that two hundred and twenty thousand Austrians were ad- 
vancing in three bodies, under the archdukes Ferdinand, John, 
and Charles, towards the Rhine and Adige, and that two Rus- 
73 2 Y 



:^^ 



578 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




CAMP AT BODLOGNE. 



sian armies were in march to join them, he suddenly quitted 
Boulogne, passed the Rhine on the 1st of October, 1805, at 
the head of one hundred and sixty thousand men, and advanced 
into Germany, while Massena arrested Prince Charles in Italy. 
The Danube was crossed and Bavaria occupied, and Napoleon 
and his generals vied with each other in boldness and success — 
Murat triumphing at Vertingen, Dupont at Hasslach, and Ney 
at Echlingen. Bewildered by such a series of rapid reverses, 
the Austrian general, Mack, suffered himself to be invested in 
Ulm, and laid down his arms, with thirty thousand men. This 
capitulation opened the gates of Vienna to the French, and 
Napoleon made his entry into that city on the 13th of Novem- 
ber. From thence he marched into Moravia to meet the Rus- 
sians, and encountered them with the remains of the Austrian 
army in the plains of Austerlitz. The battle was fought on the 
2d of December, the anniversary of his coronation ; and there 
Napoleon gained the most brilliant of all his victories. The 
battle of Austerlitz put an end to the third coalition, and was 
followed, on the 26th of December, by the peace of Presburg. 
By this treaty the house of Austria ceded the provinces of Dal- 
matia and Albania to the kingdom of Italy, and a great num- 
ber of its possessions to the electorates of Bavaria and Wurtem- 
berg, which were erected into kingdoms. But the year 1805, 
30 fruitful in triumphs for France on the continent, beheld like- 



CAMPAIGN OF AUSTERLITZ. 



581 



wise the complete ruin of her navy. The combined fleets of 
France and Spain, under the command of Admiral Villeneuve, 
beaten on the 22d of July at Cape Finisterre, lost on the 21st 
of October the celebrated battle of Trafalgar. Thirty-two 
French and Spanish ships were beaten by twenty-eight English 
sail, under the command of Nelson, and thirteen ships alone of 
the combined fleet escaped. This great victory, which cost the 
English admiral his life, secured to England the sovereignty of 
the seas, and it was no longer on that element that Napoleon 
attempted to disturb her power. 




DEATH OF NELSON. 



2t2 



682 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




NAPOLEON. 



INVASION OE SPAIN. 



WEDEN was tlie only power in the north 
which, after the treaty of Tilsit, had re- 
mained in arms. Her feehle monarch, Gus 
tavus lY., declared himself the avenger of 
Europe against Napoleon; but, abandoned 
by England and plundered by his former ally, 
Russia, he saw Stralsund and the Isle of Ru- 
gen carried off before his eyes, lost Pome- 
rania, and by his foolish pride alienated from himself the affec- 
tions of his subjects. The entire shores of the Baltic submitted 
to the French yoke. England had, some months previously, 
vainly attempted to subdue the Ottoman Porte, at that time at 




INVASION OF SPAIN. 583 

war with Russia and an ally of France. An English fleet, after 
having with this design passed the Dardanelles, had been beaten 
back by formidable batteries, hastily thrown up by the Frencli 
ambassador, Sebastiani. There remained but one single state 
which acknowledged the direct influence of Great Britain. 
That state was Portugal, and Napoleon, who, by the decree of 
the continental blockade, had arrogated to himself the right of 
disposing, at his own good pleasure, of the destinies of nations, 
signed at Fontainebleau, on the 27th of September, 1807, an 
iniquitous treaty with Spain, by which Portugal, in chastisement 
of her alliance with England, was to be almost entirely shared 
between the king of Etruria and Godoy, prince of peace, who 
governed the Spanish monarchy. This treaty acknowledged 
the king of Spain, Charles IV., as suzerain of the two states 
formed by the dismemberment of Portugal. A proclamation 
announced, on the 13th of December, 1807, that the house of 
Braganza had ceased to reign. Twenty-eight thousand French, 
under the command of Junot, were charged with the execution 
of this sentence, and, before their arrival at Lisbon, the prince- 
regent of Portugal embarked for Brazil, abandoning his capital 
and his fleet to the invading army. 

This rapid success, and the scandalous dissensions of the 
royal family of Spain, inflamed the ambition of Napoleon, and 
accustomed him to look upon the peninsula, in part or in whole, 
as his conquest. The feeble Charles IV., entirely governed by 
the queen's favourite, Godoy, had rendered himself contempti- 
ble in the eyes of all his subjects, of whom Ferdinand, the 
prince of Asturias, became the idol, as the declared enemy of 
the obnoxious favourite. Napoleon, at the summit of his for- 
tune, was an object of admiration and reverence to Charles IV. 
and his son. Already he had been chosen as the arbiter of 
their differences, and the prince of Asturias had solicited the 
honour of an alliance with his family. It was in the emperor's 
power, by pacific measures, to have exercised a sovereign influ- 
ence over Spain, and profited, advantageously for his own sys- 
tem, by the hatred with which a number of maritime disasters 
had inspired the Spaniards against England. This, however, 
was not sufiicient for his ambition, and, while the eyes of all 
the royal family of Spain were turned towards him in hope, a 
French army passed the Pyrenees, under Murat, the grand- 



584 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

duke of Berg, and suddenly the news reached Madrid that the 
strongholds of Barcelona, Figueiras, Pampeluna, And Saint 
Sebastian were militarily occupied by the French. (A. D. 1808.) 
Soon afterwards, Napoleon, in contempt of the treaty of Fon- 
tainebleau, openly demanded the annexation to his empire of 
the provinces on the left bank of the Ebro. Charles IV. and 
the queen were smitten with dismay, and Godoy counselled them 
to imitate the prince-regent of Portugal, and embark for their 
dominions in America. His advice was adopted, and prepara- 
tions were making for their departure ; but Ferdinand opposed 
the measure, and, summoning the population of Aranjuez to 
arms, denounced to them, as new treacheries, the dastardly 
counsels of Godoy. An insurrection was the consequence, in 
which the troops took part, and which was directed by Ferdi- 
nand. He caused Godoy to be arrested, kept his father pri- 
soner, compelled him to abdicate, and then made a triumphal 
entry into Madrid, in the character of king of the two 
Spains. On the following day, however, Murat, without await- 
ing the emperor's orders, entered that capital with his army. 
Charles IV. protested against his compulsory abdication, and 
Murat refused to acknowledge the royalty of Ferdinand. 
" Napoleon, alone," he said, " must decide between the father 
and son." The emperor came to Bayonne, whither he invited 
King Charles and his son to repair, that he might pronounce 
as supreme arbiter of their differences and destinies. They 
obeyed the summons, and Napoleon, master of their persons, 
decided for the father, and compelled him to abdicate in his 
own favour. Charles IV. had the chateau of Compiegne as- 
signed for his habitation, and his son was held captive in that 
of Valengay. Thus was consummated an odious act of usurpa- 
tion, whose results became fatal to its author, and gave the first 
blow to his fortune by shaking the stability of his throne. 
Murat, however, retained possession of Madrid, and, swayed by 
French influence, the council of Castile was induced to demand, 
as king of Spain, Napoleon's eldest brother, Joseph. 

An assembly of notables was immediately convened at Bay- 
onne, at which the emperor organized a junta charged with the 
provisional government. Joseph yielded up the crown of Na- 
ples to Joachim Murat, instantly quitted that capital, and 
arrived at Bayonne on the 7th of June, where he was acknow- 



INVASION OF SPAIN. 



585 




JOSEPH BOKAPARTE. 



ledged king of Spain by the duke de I'lnfantado, and a depu- 
tation of the grandees and different bodies of the state. The 
assembly of Bayonne voted a constitution, to which Joseph 
swore, and on the 9th of July he was in march for Spain. But 
already the Spaniards, indignant and furious at the usurpation, 
had flown to arms. The clergy set the example of revolt, de- 
claring that heaven was interested in the cause of Ferdinand, 
and denouncing Napoleon as antichrist. The army had risen 
in mass, and a provisional junta of government, assembled at 
Seville, disputed and annulled the acts of the junta of Bayonne. 
On Saint Ferdinand's day, a new " Sicilian Vespers" sounded 
against the French throughout the whole of Spain. Their 
squadron was seized at Cadiz, and the crews slaughtered, and 
the Spaniards signalized their vengeance, in a variety of places, 
by massacres and crime. They declared war to the death 
against the French, and the Portuguese followed their example. 
However, Bessieres was victorious at Medina de Rio Secco, and 
his success opened the gates of Madrid to King Joseph, who 
74 



586 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



made his «ntry into that capital on the 20th of July. Ahnost 
immediately afterwards, however, General Dupont shamefully 
capitulated at Baylen, and laid down his arms with twenty- 
six thousand soldiers. This terrible check gave a shock to the 
French authority in the peninsula, and redoubled the daring of 
the Spaniards. Joseph was obliged to quit Madrid one week 
after his solemn entry. Portugal revolted, and an English 
army landed there under the command of Sir Arthur Wellesley, 
afterwards the duke of Wellington. Junot, with only ten 
thousand men, risked the battle of Vimiera against twenty-six 
thousand English and Portuguese. He was beaten, and shortly 
afterwards signed the convention of Cintra, which at least left 
him at liberty to return to France with honour. Portugal was 
evacuated, and already Joseph possessed no more than Barce- 
lona, Navarre, and Biscay, in all Spain. The English, so re- 
cently enemies to the Spaniards, were received by them with 
open arms. The star of Napoleon began to wane, and the 
prestige of the invincibility of the French arms, under his 
reign, was at length destroyed. 





: A R S n A L L A N N E 8. 



THE WAR IN SPALS AND GERMANY. 589 




THE WAR IN SPAIN AND GERMANY. 

ETERMINED to subdue Spain, Napoleon 
strengthened his alliance with Alexander, by 
an interview, at Erfurt, in September and 
October, 1808; and, secure of the pacific 
intentions of that emperor, he recalled his 
legions from the banks of the Niemen, the 
Spree, the Elbe, and the Danube, and directed them against 
Spain, where his presence at the head of his veterans soon 
changed the aspect of things. The battles of Burgos, Espinosa, 
and Tudela, in which his eagles were triumphant, once more 
opened to Joseph the gates of Madrid. Arrived in that capital, 
Napoleon promised franchises and the abolition of feudalism to 
the Spaniards ; but he spoke to a people who scarcely under- 
stood him, who had no ears but for their priests, and whose he- 
roism displayed itself only in their impatience of a foreign 
yoke. Their answers to the liberal promises of the usurper 
were cries of execration and rage. They organized themselves 
into guerilla bands, who converted Spain into a second Vendue 
for the troops of France. Everywhere the population rose, and 
flew to arms ; and the vow of national independence became a 
bond to unite the constitutionalists with the partisans of the 
clergy, against their common enemy, France. The English 
were approaching, and Napoleon marched to meet them. But 
his course was suddenly arrested by the intelligence that Aus- 
tria, emboldened by his absence and the withdrawal of his vete- 
ran troops, had formed a fifth coalition with England and the 
holy see, (1809 ;) and that the archduke Charles was again in 
arms, and with difficulty held in check by Davoust, whose force 
was inferior. Napoleon instantly quitted Spain, flew to the 
Rhine, triumphed at Eckmuhl and at Ratisbonne ; and the 
French army entered a second time, as victors, into the capital 
of Austria. On the 22d of May, was fought, on some islands 

2 Z 



590 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




DEATH OF MARSHAL LANNES. 



in the Danube, the bloody and indecisive battle of Essling ; 
in wliich the emperor lost thousands of brave men, and his 
friend Lannes, duke of Montebello. The corps of Marmont 
and Eugene rejoined the grand army, and repaired its losses ; 
and, after the victory of Raab, the terrible battle of Wagram, 
in which no less than twelve hundred pieces of cannon swept 
the ranks of the two armies, terminated the war in favour of 
France. The vanquished Francis I. signed, on the 14th of Oc- 
tober, the peace of Vienna, whereby he ceded several provinces, 
and gave in his adherence to the continental system. Pope 
Pius VIL, who, groaning under the partition of his territories, 
had given his countenance to this coalition, and threatened the 
emperor with the thunders of the Vatican, was dethroned from 
his temporal sovereignty, brutally torn from the pontifical 
palace, and consigned to a four years' captivity, first at Savone, 
and afterwards at Fontainebleau ; and the ancient metropolis of 
the world was degraded into the capital of a French department. 
A hundred thousand English had, during this campaign, at- 
tempted a descent upon Holland ; Flushing had fallen into their 
power, and Antwerp was menaced by them. But the strong 
defensive condition of this place, and a levy of national guards 
in the northern departments, rendered their efi"orts unavailing. 
Their ranks were thinned by sickness in the marshes of Zealand ; 
and they evacuated Flushing, after having sustained considerable 




THE EMPEESS JOSEPHINE. 



THE WAR IN FRANCE AND GERMANY. 593 

losses- The resistance to Napoleon's arms in the peninsula was, 
however, continued, notwithstanding numerous victories gained 
by his generals. Sebastiani had triumphed at Ciudad-Real, 
Victor at Medelin, and Soult at Oporto, where tAYenty thousand 
Portuguese were left upon the field of battle. But the lofty 
example of Palafox, the defender of Saragossa, and the heroic 
conduct of the inhabitants of that town, who buried themselves 
beneath its ruins rather than submit to the conqueror, excited 
the enthusiasm and redoubled the energies of the Spaniards. 
The English, hailed by them as deliverers, successfully second- 
ed their efforts. On the 28th of July, Joseph fought against 
Sir Arthur Wellesley the indecisive battle of Talavera, which 
however, the English celebrated as a victory. In vain did Se- 
bastiani triumph on the 21st of August, at Almonacid ; and 
Mortier, with twenty-five thousand men, overthrow fifty thou- 
sand at Ocana, on the 19th of November ; in vain was Anda- 
lusia open to the French; Spain was still unsubdued. Soult in 
the south, and Suchet in the north, commenced the campaign 
of 1810. Grenada, Malaga, and Seville were occupied by the 
Erench ; and the provisional junta of Seville removed to Cadiz, 
which was unsuccessfully besieged by Marshal Victor. It was 
at this period that South America threw off the Spanish yoke, 
and proclaimed the federal government of Venezuela. Massena, 
prince of Essling, at the same time, sustained the war in Por- 
tugal against Wellington, whose army was greatly superior to 
that of the French ; but the success of the campaign was com- 
promised by a serious misunderstanding which arose betwixt him 
and Marshal Ney. He marched upon the capital, was beaten 
at Busaco, and his progress finally arrested in the month of De- 
cember, by Wellington, before the formidable lines of Torres 
Vedras, which covered Lisbon. 

While the peninsula was thus devouring the flower of the 
French armies. Napoleon attained the highest point of his mar- 
vellous destinies. Induced alike by his anxiety for an heir, and 
his desire to ally himself with the old European dynasties, he 
divorced his first wife, Josephine de Beauharnois, and on the 
30th of March, 1810, married Maria-Louisa, archduchess of 
Austria, and daughter of the emperor Francis. 
75 2 z 2 



594 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




NAPOLEON'S RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 



m^^^^ 




OWARDS the close of 1811, a com- 
mercial ukase re-opened the ports 
of Russia to the colonial produce 
of England, and the armies of Alex- 
ander approached the Niemen. At 
the same time, Sweden renounced 
her adhesion to the continental sys- 
tem ; and shortly afterwards, a sixth 
confederation against France was 
formed between England, Russia, 
■^"'~ --— — — * Sweden, Spain, and Portugal, — 
France being voluntarily seconded by Italy and Poland, and 
constrainedly so, by Germany, Prussia, and Austria. The sultan 
Mahmoud, the successor of Selim, who had been slain by the 
janissaries, entered, at this period, into treaty with Russia, and 
signed the peace of Bucharest. Napoleon repaired to Dresden : 
where his court was composed of most of the crowned heads and 
princes in Europe; and there he made final but fruitless efforts 
to re-attach Alexander to his system. That which he failed in 
obtaining by means of persuasion, he determined to secure by 



NAPOLEON'S RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 595 

force of arms ; and war was declared against Russia, on the 22d 
of June, 1812. 

Napoleon took the field, at the head of four hundred thousand 
soldiers, passed the Niemen, on the 24th of June, with half his 
forces, and halted at Wilna seventeen days. That delay was 
fatal to his arms. The diet of Warsaw, during his sojourn in 
Poland, proclaimed the re-establishment of the kingdom, and 
the liberation of the entire nation. A deputation demanded of ^ 
the emperor that he should recognise the existence of Poland. 
Napoleon hesitated and gave finally an evasive answer. After 
a glorious action, he arrived at Witepsk, the hostile army, under 
Barclay de Tolly, retiring before him. A bloody battle was 
fought before Smolensko, which was abandoned to the flames. 
The Russians fell back, and the French continued to advance. 
Valoutina witnessed a murderous conflict ; but the disobedience 
of one of Napoleon's generals saved the army of the enemy from 
total destruction. Still, however, that army retreated, followed 
by the emperor. At length, on the 5th of September, the grand 
army arrived on the plains of Borodino, a few miles from Moscow, 
on the banks of the Moskowa, and found itself in presence of the 
whole Russian army, commanded by the veteran Kutusofi". A 
general engagement was determined on for the following day ; and 
on that memorable morning. Napoleon, issuing from his tent thus 
addressed his officers : — " How bright, to-day, is the sun ! — it is 
the sun of Austerlitz !" - Then, in a proclamation to his soldiers 
he said, — "The battle is now at hand for which you have so 
longed : acquit yourselves as you did at Austerlitz, at Friedland, 
at Witepsk, at Smolensko ; and let posterity the most remote 
refer with pride to your deeds of this day. Let men say 
of each of you, when they shall behold you, — ' He was at that 
great battle on the plains of Moscow !' " The fight began almost 
immediately afterwards, and was a terrible one. Ney, Murat, 
Eugene, Davoust, Gerard, and Poniatowski performed prodigies 
of valour. Auguste Caulaincourt was mortally wounded, while 
carrying, in a gallop, a formidable redoubt, at the head of his 
cuirassiers. The Russians at length gave way, after a most 
sanguinary struggle. Napoleon restrained his guards, and suf- 
fered the enemy, whom he might have annihilated, to escape. 
Twenty-two thousand French and fifty thousand Russians were 
killed or wounded on that murderous day. A great number of 



596 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




the generals of France was slain, but the victory was hers, and 
Marshal Ney was proclaimed prince of the Moskowa, on the 
field of battle. A second engagement took place at Mojaisk, 
half a league from Moscow, where the Russians were again 
beaten ; and their army entered into the ancient capital of their 
empire only to abandon it. Thither the French penetrated, 
after them: but were astonished at the solitude which reigned 
within its walls. The streets were deserts, and the inhabitants 
had fled. Napoleon entered, unresisted, into the ancient citadel 
of the Kremlin. Moscow he looked upon as an asylum, after 
the sufferings and fatigues of his army. He found immense re- 
sources within the city, and here, therefore, he resolved to establish 
his winter quarters, — and looked proudly around on his conquest. 
But during the night a frightful conflagration broke out. Ros- 
topchin, the governor of the city, had determined, in evacuating 
it, on an immense sacrifice, for the salvation of his country. 
Russia was lost, if the French should find a shelter in Moscow. 
At an appointed signal, and by order of Rostopchin, a band of 
convicts spread themselves throughout the city, carrying flame in 
their hands, and set fire to it in a thousand parts. Moscow 
crumbled away beneath the conflagration, and little more of her 
was left, in a few hours, than a heap of cinders and ruins. 

The winter was approaching, and the French had no longer 
an asylum to look forward to against its rigours. Napoleon 



NAPOLEON'S RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. 



597 




NAPOLEON LEAVINO RUSSIA. 



still flattered himself with the hope of peace, and Alexander 
prolonged the negotiations purposely, with the view of detaining 
his enemy amid the ruins of Moscow. At length, however, the 
negotiations were broken up, and the order was issued for retreat- 
The emperor quitted the city at the head of a hundred thousand 
fighting men, after forty days of fruitless expectation. " Your 
day of warfare is ended," said old Kutusoff, " and ours is about 
to begin." The winter set in suddenly, with more than its 
usual rigour, even in Russia. The French troops, paralysed by 
the cold, were pursued and harassed in their retreat by innume- 
rable enemies, and the roads were covered with their frozen 
corpses. Still, however, the army marched in tolerable order as 
far as the Beresina, which it had to cross in the presence of three 
Russian armies. The river was, as yet, unfrozen over, though 
covered with floating ice. It was necessary to construct rafts, 
under the fire of the enemy, and at the same time make head 
against them unceasingly. At this place were again achieved 
prodigies of heroism ; but the rafts were encumbered by multi- 
tudes of stragglers and disarmed soldiers, and, yielding to the 
pressure, thousands of men were engulfed in the waters of the 
Beresina. At length, after incredible efi'orts, this formidable 
barrier was cleared ; but the moral as well as physical strength 
of the soldiers was gone ; the cold set in with renewed rigour ; 
and the retreat was, thenceforth, one vast and frightful rout. 



593 



INCIDENTS OF MODEKN HISTORY. 




COMMODOEE TEUXTUN. 



CAPTURE OF THE INSURGENTE AND 
VENGEANCE. 




HE quasi war, as it is 
called, between this 
country and France, 
under the Directory, 
having commenced, a 
squadron under the 
command of Commo- 
dore Truxtun was or- 
dered to protect the 
commerce of the Uni- 
ted States in the West 
Indies. It was while 
on this service that his 
brightest laurels were 

won, by the capture of two French frigates, each of superior 

force to his own ship. 

On the 9th of February, the Constellation being alone cruising 

on her prescribed ground, the island of Nevis bearing W. S. W., 



CAPTURE OF THE INSURGENTE AND VENGEANCE. 599 




CAPTURE OF THE INSURGEXIE. 



and distant five leagues, made a large ship on the southern 
board. The stranger, being approached by the Constellation, 
showed the American colours, when the private signals were 
shown. The chase being unable to answer, further disguise was 
abandoned, and, hoisting the French ensign, he fired a gun to 
windward, by way of challenge, and gallantly awaited the con- 
test. This being the first time since the revolutionary war that 
an American ship had encountered an enemy in any manner 
that promised a contest, the officers and men were eager for 
the engagement ; and the enemy were not inclined to avoid it. 
The ships neared, until the Constellation, after having been 
thrice hailed, opened a fire upon her antagonist. A fierce can- 
nonade ensued, while the American was drawing ahead. She 
sufiiered much in her sails and rigging, and the foretopmast was 
nearly cut off by a shot. This was, in some degree, remedied 
by Mr. David Porter, a midshipman, who, being unable to com- 
municate the circumstance to others, himself cut the stoppers 
and lowered the yard, and thus prevented the fall of the mast 
with its rigging. In the mean time, their superior gunnery 
gave the action a turn in favour of the Americans, who were at 
last enabled to decide the contest by two or three raking broad- 
sides, after a combat of an hour, when the American woro 



600 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

round, and would again have raked her, with all their guns, had 
she not prudently struck. 

The prize was the French frigate I'lnsurgente, one of the 
fastest vessels in the world. She was greatly damaged, and had 
lost in all seventy men. The Constellation also was much dam- 
aged in her rigging, but lost only three men, wounded, one of 
whom, Mr. James McDonough, had his foot shot off. 

The Insurgente carried forty guns, and four hundred and nine 
men. The American vessel carried thirty-eight guns, and three 
hundred and nine men. 

It was half-past 'three in the afternoon when the Insurgente 
struck, and Mr. Rodgers, the first lieutenant of the Constellation, 
was sent, together with Mr. Porter and eleven men, to take 
possession and have the prisoners removed ; but, ere this could 
be effected, the darkness and a rise of wind separated the ships. 

The situation of Rodgers, at this period, was unpleasant in 
the extreme. No handcuffs were to be found, and the prisoners 
seemed disposed to rebel. Fortunately, Rodgers was well cal- 
culated to act with decision in such circumstances, and Porter 
and the men equally prompt in executing his orders. The pri- 
soners were sent into the lower hold, and a sentinel stationed at 
each hatchway, with orders to shoot any one who should attempt 
to come upon deck without orders. Thus he was obliged to 
spend three days, at the end of which time he arrived at St. 
Kitts, where the Constellation had already arrived. 

On the 1st of February, 1800, the Constellation came in sight 
of a strange sail, off the coast of Guadaloupe. Thinking her to 
be an English merchantman, Truxtun hoisted the English flag, 
in order to be hailed by her. This was disregarded, and sail 
made in pursuit, when the stranger was discovered to be a French 
man-of-war. The English flag was lowered, and all made ready 
for a desperate struggle. The enemy's ship was ascertained to 
carry fifty-two guns ; but the vessel being very deep, Truxtun 
was not discouraged by her superior force, but still gave chase. 
The wind being light during the afternoon, it was not until 
evening, at eight o'clock, that they came within speaking dis- 
tance. The ship then opened a fire upon them, which was re- 
turned, and kept up till near one o'clock in the morning, when 
the French ship made all sail to escape. Truxtun ordered to 
give chase ; but was informed that the mainmast had been nearly 




76 



S A 



CAPTUKE OF THE INSURGENTE AND "VrENGEANCE. 603 

shot away, and, as it was found impossible to remedy it, the 
chase was given up. 

Soon after the ships separated, the mast fell, and several men 
were lost by the accident ; among them Mr. Jarvis, a midship- 
man. 

Mr. Tmxtun, as no port to windward could be reached, bore 
up for Jamaica, where he arrived in safety. His antagonist, it 
was ascertained afterwards, arrived at Curagoa, in a very disa- 
bled condition, and reported a loss of fifty killed, and one hun- 
dred and ten wounded. The loss of the Constellation was four- 
teen killed, and twenty-three wounded, of whom eleven died. 

The Constellation, at this time, carried twenty eighteens on 
her main-deck, and the quarter-deck was supplied with ten twenty- 
four pound carronades. She numbered three hundred and ten 
men. The Vengeance, the French vessel, carried twenty-eight 
eighteens, sixteen twelves, and eight forty-two pound carronades. 
There are various statements of her crew, all between four hun- 
dred and five hundred men. 

It is certain that, but for the loss of her mast, the Constel- 
lation would have brought the prize into port ; indeed, it is re- 
ported, that the Vengeance struck three times, but the Ameri- 
cans continuing their fire, the colours were hoisted again. 

Commodore Truxtun was rewarded for this exploit by a pro- 
motion to the command of the President, forty-four guns ; and 
was also presented by Congress with a gold medal. 

The Constellation was now given to Captain Murray ; and 
Commodore Truxtun, hoisting his broad pennant in the Presi- 
dent, made another cruise on the Guadaloupe station, where he 
rendered eminent service in the protection of the American 
commerce against French cruisers, until the close of the war. 



604 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




DECATUR. 



THE TRIPOLITAN WAR. 




\tkl '^ "^ consequence of insolent demands for tribute 
c V "^ made on the government of the United States, 
and depredations on the American commerce, a 
war broke out, in 1801, between this country and 
Tripoli. In 1803, the government of the United 
States, determined to bring the war to a close, sent out a large 
squadron under Commodore Preble. One of the ships, the 
Philadelphia, commanded by Captain Bainbridge, when recon- 
noitering to the eastward of Tripoli ran aground, and, with 
her oflScers and crew, was captured by a fleet of the enemy's 
gun-boats. Decatur, then a lieutenant, proposed to his com- 
mander to retake or destroy the frigate. 




THE TRIPOLITAN WAR. 605 

The consent of the commodore 
having been obtained, Lieutenant 
Decatur selected for the expedition 
a ketch (the Intrepid) which he had 
captured a few weeks before from 
the enemy, and manned her with 
seventy volunteers, chiefly from his 
own crew. He sailed from Syra- 
cuse on the 3d of February, 1804, 
accompanied by the United States 
brig Syren, Lieutenant Stewart, 
PEEBLE. ■yflio was to aid with his boats and 

to receive the crew of the ketch, in case it should be found 
expedient to use her as a fire-ship. 

After fifteen days of very tempestuous weather, they arrived 
at the harbour of Tripoli a little before sunset. It had been 
arranged between Lieutenants Decatur and Stewart, that the 
ketch should enter the harbour about ten o'clock that night, 
attended by the boats of the Syren. On arriving off the har- 
bour, the Syren, in consequence of a change of wind, had been 
thrown six or eight miles without the Intrepid. The wind at 
this time was fair, but fast declining, and Lieutenant Decatur 
apprehended that, should he wait for the Syren's boats to come 
up, it might be fatal to the enterprise, as they could not remain 
longer on the coast, their provisions being nearly exhausted. 
For these reasons he determined to adventure into the harbour 
alone, which he did about eight o'clock. 

An idea may be formed of the extreme hazard of the enter- 
prise from the situation of the frigate. She was moored within 
half gunshot of the bashaw's castle and of the principal bat- 
tery. Two of the enemy's cruisers lay within two cables' 
length on the starboard quarter, and their gun-boats within 
half gunshot on the starboard bow. All the guns of the fri- 
gate were mounted and loaded. Such were the immediate 
perils that our hero ventured to encounter with a single ketch, 
besides the other dangers that abound in a strongly fortified 
harbour. 

Although from the entrance to the place where the frigate 
lay was only three miles, yet, in consequence of the lightness 
of the wind, they did not get within hail of her until eleven 

3a2 



606" INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

o'clock. When they had approached within two hundred yards, 
they were hailed and ordered to anchor, or they would be fired 
into. Lieutenant Decatur ordered a Maltese pilot, who was 
on board the ketch, to answer that they had lost theii* anchors 
in a gale of wind on the coast, and therefore could not comply 
with their request. By this time it had become perfectly calm, 
and they were about fifty yards from the frigate. Lieutenant 
Decatur ordered a small boat that was alongside of the ketch 
to take a rope and make it fast to the frigate's forechains. This 
being done, they began to warp the ketch alongside. It was 
not until this moment that the enemy suspected the character 
of their visitor, and great confusion immediately ensued. This 
enabled our adventurers to get alongside of the frigate, when 
Decatur immediately sprang aboard, followed by Mr. Charles 
Morris, midshipman. These two were nearly a minute on deck 
before their companions could succeed in mounting the side. 
Fortunately the Turks had not sufiiciently recovered from their 
surprise to take advantage of this delay. They were crowded 
together on the quarter-deck, perfectly astonished and aghast, 
without making any attempt to oppose the assailing party. As 
soon as a sufficient number had gained the deck to form a front 
equal to that of the enemy, they rushed in upon them. The 
Turks stood the assault for a short time, and were completely 
overpowered. About twenty were killed on the spot ; many 
jumped overboard, and the rest flew to the main-deck, whither 
they were pursued and driven to the hold. 

After entire possession had been gained of the ship, and 
every thing prepared to set fire to her, a number of launches 
were seen rowing about the harbour. This determined Lieute- 
nant Decatur to remain on board the frigate, from whence a 
better defence could be made than on board the ketch. The 
enemy had already commenced firing on them from their bat- 
teries and castle, and from two corsairs that were lying near. 
Perceiving that the launches did not attempt to approach, he 
ordered the ship should be set on fire, which was done, at the 
same time, in difierent parts. As soon as this was done, they 
left her, and such was the rapidity of the flames, that it was 
with the utmost difficulty they preserved the ketch. At this 
critical moment a most propitious breeze sprang up, blowing 
directly out of the harbour, which, in a few moments, carried 



THE TRIPOLITAN WAR. 



609 



them out of reach of the enemy's guns, and they made good 
their retreat without the loss of a single man, and with but four 
wounded. 

For this gallant and romantic achievement, Lieutenant De- 
catur was promoted to the rank of post-captain, there being at 
that time no intermediate grade. 




77 



610 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




BOMBARDMENT OF TRIPOLI. 




N April, 1804, Commodore Preble decided to bom- 
'■ bard the city of Tripoli. His force consisted of 
tbe frigate Constitution, forty-four guns, twenty- 
four pounders ; brig Argus, eighteen guns, twen- 
ty-four pounders ; brig Syren, eighteen guns, 
eighteen pounders ; Scourge ; schooner Vixen, sixteen guns, six 
pounders ; schooner Nautilus, sixteen guns, six pounders ; En- 
terprise, fourteen guns, six pounders ; six gun-boats of one 
brass twenty-six pounder each ; and two bombard ketches, 
each carrying a thirteen-inch mortar ; the whole number of 
men, one thousand and sixty. 

The enemy had on his castle and several batteries one hun- 
dred and fifteen guns, fifty-five of which were heavy battering 
brass cannon ; the others, long eighteen and twelve pounders ; 
nineteen gun-boats, with each a long brass eighteen or twenty- 
four pounder in the bow, and two howitzers abaft. He had two 



BOMBARDMENT OF TRIPOLI. 611 

schooners of eight guns each, a brig of ten, and two galleys, 
having each four guns. In addition to the ordinary Turkish 
garrison, stationed upon the fortifications, and the crews of the 
boats and armed vessels, computed at about three thousand, the 
bashaw had called in to the defence of his city more than 
twenty thousand Arabs. These forces were arranged in the 
positions best adapted for repelling an attack, and also for seiz- 
ing the occasion of falling upon any detachment of the invading 
force which could be drawn from the main body. 

The weather prevented the squadron from approaching the 
enemy till the 28th, when, after anchoring within two and a 
half miles of his line of defence, the wind suddenly shifted and 
increased to a gale. They were compelled to weigh and gain 
an oflBng. On the 1st of August, the gale subsided, and the 
squadron on the 3d, (the weather being pleasant and the wind 
at east,) at noon were within two or three miles of the batte- 
ries, which were all closely manned. 

The commodore, observing that several of the enemy's boats 
had taken a station without the reef of rocks which covers the 
entrance of the harbour, about two miles from its bottom, re- 
solved to take advantage of this circumstance, and made signal 
for the squadron to come within speaking distance, when he 
communicated to the several commanders his intention of at- 
tacking the shipping and batteries. The gun and mortar boats 
were immediately manned, and prepared to cast off. The gun- 
boats in two divisions of three each : the first division under 
Captain Somers on board No. 1, with Lieutenant James Decatur 
in No. 2, and Lieutenant Blake in No. 3. The second division 
under Captain Decatur in No. 4, with Lieutenant Bainbridge 
in No. 5, and Lieutenant Trippe in No. 6. The two bombards 
were commanded by Lieutenant-commandant Dent, and by Mr. 
Robinson, first lieutenant of the commodore's ship. At half- 
past one o'clock, the squadron stood for the batteries ; at two, 
cast off the gun-boats ; at half-past two, signal for the bombs 
and boats to advance and attack, and in fifteen minutes after 
signal was given for general action. It was commenced by the 
bombs throwing shells into the town. In an instant the enemy's 
lines opened a tremendous fire from not less than two hundred 
guns, which was promptly returned by the whole squadron, 
now within "nusket-shot of the principal batteries. 



t)12 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

At this moment Captain Decatur, with his three gun-boats, 
attacked the enemy's eastern division, consisting of nine. He 
was soon in the centre of them, and the fire of grape, langrage, 
and musketry was changed to a deadly personal combat with 
the bayonet, spear, sabre, and tomahawk. Captain Decatur 
grappled one of the enemy's boats, and boarded with but fif- 
teen men. He parried the blows of five Turks, who fell upon 
him with cimeters, so as to receive no injury, till a blow from 
the boat's captain, a powerful Turk, cleft his blade in two. He 
instantly closed with the Turk, but, overpowered by muscular 
strength, he fell under him across the gunnel of the boat. In 
this position, he drew a side-pistol and killed his antagonist. 
Meantime, his sergeant and a marine soldier, seeing his dan- 
ger, flew, to his relief, and engaged and slew the other four 
assailants. By this time the other thirteen men had vanquished 
the residue of the crew, thirty-one in number, and the boat's 
colours were hauled down. Captain Decatur left this boat in 
charge of an officer, and immediately, with Lieutenant McDo- 
nough and eight men besides himself, laid another boat on 
board, which he carried, after a desperate and bloody encounter 
of a few minutes. The fierce desperation of the Arnaout 
Turks, who value themselves on never yielding, made the 
slaughter of the enemy in these conflicts immense. The two 
prizes of Captain Decatur had thirty-three officers and men 
killed, and twenty-seven made prisoners, nineteen of whom 
were severely wounded. 

Lieutenant Trippe boarded one of the enemy's large boats 
with only a midshipman, Mr. Jonathan Henley, and nine men. 
His boat falling ofl" before any more could join him, he was left 
to conquer or perish with the fearful odds of eleven to thirty- 
six. In a few minutes, however, though for a moment the vic- 
tory seemed dubious, the enemy was subdued ; fourteen of them 
lost their lives, and twenty-two submitted to be prisoners, seven 
of whom were badly wounded. Lieutenant Trippe received 
eleven sabre wounds, some of which were deep and dangerous. 
The blade of his sword also yielded. He closed with the 
enemy ; both fell, but in the struggle Trippe wrested the Turk's 
sword from him, and with it pierced his body. Mr. Henley, in 
this encounter, displayed a valour joined to a coolness that 
would have honoured a veteran. Lieutenant Bainbridge had 



BOMBARDMENT OF TRIPOLI. 613 

his lateen-yard shot away, which baffled his utmost exertions to 
get alongside the enemy's boats ; but his active and well-di- 
rected fire, within musket-shot, was very effective. At one 
time he had, in his ardour, pushed forward so that his boat 
grounded within pistol shot of one of the enemy's formidable 
batteries, and where he was exposed to volleys of musketry. 
But, by address and courage, he extricated himself from this 
situation, and, so ill-directed was the enemy's fire, without 
receiving any injury. 

Captain Somers was not able to fetch far enough to wind- 
ward to co-operate with Decatur. But he bore down upon the 
leeward division of the enemy, and, with his single boat within 
pistol shot, attacked five full-manned boats, defeated and drove 
them in a shattered condition, and with the loss of many lives, 
under shelter of the rocks. 

Lieutenant Decatur, in No. 2, engaged with one of the ene- 
my's largest boats, which struck after the loss of the greatest 
part of her men. At the moment this brave young officer was 
stepping on board his prize, he was shot through the head by 
the Turkish captain, who, by this means, escaped, while the 
Americans were recovering the body of their unfortunate com- 
mander. 

The two bomb-vessels kept their station, although often co- 
vered with the spray of the sea, occasioned by the enemy's shot. 
They kept up a constant fire and threw a great number of shells 
into the town. Five of the enemy's gun-boats and two galleys, 
composing their centre division, stationed within the rocks, 
joined by the boats which had been driven in and reinforced, 
twice attempted to row out and surround our gun-boats and 
prizes. They were as often foiled by the vigilance of the com- 
modore, who gave signal to the brigs and schooners to cover 
them, which was properly attended to by these vessels, all of 
which were gallantly conducted, and annoyed the enemy ex- 
ceedingly. The fire of the Constitution had its ample share 
in this bombardment. It kept the enemy's flotilla in constant 
disorder, and produced no inconsiderable effect on shore. The 
frigate was constantly in easy motion, and always found where 
danger threatened to defeat the arrangements of the day. Se- 
veral times she was within two cables' length of the rocks, and 
three of the batteries, every one of which were successively 

3B 



614 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORl 

silenced as often as her broadside could be brought to bear on 
them ; but having no large vessels to secure these advantages, 
when circumstances compelled her to change her position, the 
silenced batteries were reanimated. " We suffered most," says 
the commodore, " when wearing or tacking. It was then I 
most sensibly felt the want of another frigate." 

At half-past four, the wind inclining to the northward, and 
at the same time the enemy's flotilla having retreated behind 
coverts which shielded them from our shot, while our people 
were necessarily much exhausted by two hours and a half severe 
exertion, signal was given for the gunboats and bombs to retire 
from action ; and, immediately after, to the brigs and schooners 
to take the gunboats and their prizes in tow, which was hand- 
somely executed, the whole covered by a heavy fire from the 
Constitution. In fifteen minutes the squadron was out of reach 
of the enemy's shot, and the commodore hauled off to give tow 
to the bomb ketches. 

The squadron were more than two hours within grapeshot 
distance of the enemy's batteries, and under a constant fire. 
But the damage received was in no proportion to the apparent 
danger, or to the effect produced by the assailants. The frigate 
took a thirty-two pound shot in her mainmast, about thirty feet 
from the deck ; her sails and rigging were considerably cut ; 
one of her quarter-deck guns was injured by a round shot, 
which burst in pieces and shattered a mariner's arm, but not a 
man was killed on board of her. The other vessels and boats 
suffered in their rigging, and had sundry men wounded, but lost 
none except Lieutenant Decatur, the brother of the Captain 
Decatur, so conspicuous in this war. Several circumstances ex- 
plain this impunity of our squadron. Where the engagement 
was close — as with the boats — the impetuosity of the attack, as 
well as our more dexterous use of the weapons of destruction, 
overpowered and appalled the enemy. The barbarians are un- 
skilful gunners. The shower of grapeshot annoyed and dis- 
composed them in the application of what little skill they pos- 
sessed. The assailing party were so near as to be overshot by 
the batteries ; especially as the managers of the guns were so 
fearful of exposing their heads above the parapets as easily to 
oversight their object. 

Very different was the result of this conflict to the enemy. 



BOMBARDMENT OF TRIPOLI. 61"; 

The American fire was not an empty peal, but a messenger of 
death in every direction. The three captured boats had one 
hundred and three men on board, forty-seven of whom were 
killed, twenty-six wounded, and thirty only fit for duty. Three 
other boats were sunk, with their entire crews, and the decks 
of their vessels in the harbour were swept of numbers. The 
effect on shore was not so great as in the shipping, but still such 
as to spread consternation. Several Turks were killed and 
wounded, and many guns of the fort dismounted, and the town 
was considerably damaged. 

As might be expected, the bombardment made a powerful 
impression on the mind of the enemy. The burning of the 
Philadelphia could not fail to make the bashaw and his people 
apprehend something serious from the present commander. 
When the squadron was seen standing in, however, he affected 
contempt, and surveying them from his palace, observed, " They 
will mark their distance for tacking ; they are a sort of Jews, 
who have no notion of fighting." The palace and terraces of 
the houses were crowded with spectators, to see the chastisement 
the bashaw's boats would give the squadron, if they approached 
too near. This exultation was very transient. The battle was 
scarcely joined, when no one was seen on shore, except on the 
batteries. Many of the inhabitants fled into the country ; and 
the bashaw, it is said, retreated with his priest to his bomb- 
proof room. An intelligent oflScer of the Philadelphia, then in 
captivity, observes, that the Turks asked if those men that 
fought so were Americans, or infernals in Christian shape, sent 
to destroy the sons of the prophet. "The English, Erench, 
and Spanish consuls," say they, "have told us that they are a 
young nation, and got their independence by means of France ; 
that they had a small navy, and their officers were inexpe- 
rienced, and that they were merely a nation of merchants, and 
that by taking their ships and men we should get great ran- 
soms. Instead of this, their Preble pays us a coin of shot, 
shells, and hard blows ; and sent a Decatur, in a dark night, 
with a band of Christian dogs fierce and cruel as the tiger, who 
killed our brothers and burnt our ships before our eyes." 



BIG 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GENERAL WILLIAM EATON. 



CAPTURE OF DERNE AND CLOSE OP 
THE WAR. 

URING the months of August and 
September, other repeated attacks 
were made on the fortifications and 
city of Tripoli by the American 
squadron, which did great injury to 
the Tripolitans, and evinced the 
skill and valour of the Americans, 
without producing any decisive re- 
sult. 

It was now determined to unite a land expedition with the 
operations of the fleet, and the singular spectacle was exhibited 
of the invasion of an African state by an American force. The 
command of this enterprise was intrusted to General William 




CAPTURE OF DERNE AND CLOSE OF THE WAR. 



617 




CAPTDRE OF DEBME. 



Eaton, wlio succeeded in forming an alliance with Hamet, the 
ex-bashaw of Tripoli, who had been unjustly deprived of the 
government and expelled by his brother, the reigning bashaw. 
Having met Hamet in Egypt, where he held command of an 
army of Mamelukes at war with the Turkish government, Eaton 
united his handful of troops with those of his ally, and marched 
from Alexandria on the 6th of March, 1805. After accom- 
plishing a route of more than 1000 miles, — a parallel to which, 
in peril, fatigue, and suffering, can hardly be found but in 
romance, — he arrived before Derne on the 25th of April, and 
summoning the governor to surrender the city, he received the 
doughty reply, "My head or yours !" 

On the 27th, Derne was assaulted by the troops of Hamet 
and the Americans, under the command of Eaton, and after a 
contest of two hours and a half was carried at the point of the 
bayonet. The assault was supported by the American squad- 
ron, which had previously arrived in the bay, as agreed upon. 
The governor and many of his adherents fled to the desert. 
78 3 B 2 



618 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



The Americans suffered severely in the assault, and General 
Eaton himself was -wounded in the wrist. The inhabitants of 
the city submitted to the authority of Hamet. 

Eaton's next exploit was the successful resistance of a siege 
by the army of the reigning bashaw of Tripoli, who advanced 
to recapture Derne, and experienced a signal defeat, being 
compelled to yield to the superior skill and discipline of Eaton's 
forces. His career of victory, however, was cut short by the 
arrival of the Constitution frigate in the harbour of Derne, 
with the news of a treaty of peace, on terms much less advan- 
tageous than Eaton might have dictated if left to his own 
resources. By this arrangement, entered into by Mr. Lear on 
the part of the United States, with the reigning bashaw, the 
American prisoners were ransomed for 60,000 dollars, and the 
cause of Hamet was abandoned. This treaty was by no means 
acceptable to the American people, who have an insuperable 
aversion to purchasing peace with gold, and honour the custom 
of ransoming prisoners with steel. 




COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR OF 1812. 619 





COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR OF 1812. 

N the course of the prolonged struggle 
between Napoleon and England, each at- 
tempted to destroy the commerce of the 
other. Hence the famous Berlin and Mi- 
lan decrees of Napoleon, and the orders 
in council of the British government, mak- 
ing prizes of neutral ships engaged in 
the carrying trade. The United States 
suffered heavily by these proceedings, and felt injured and in- 
sulted by the imprisonment of American seamen, haughtily per- 
sisted in by the British. The consequence was, a declaration of 
war against Great Britain by the United States, which took 
place on the 18th of June, 1812. 

When the war of independence was commenced, the United 
States contained less than four millions of inhabitants, and had 
neither an army, a treasury, nor a national existence. But it 
possessed a people united in purpose, and firmly resolved to vin- 
dicate their rights. At the opening of the war of 1812, the 
country had eight millions of inhabitants, great resources of 
wealth, and all the elements of an efficient army and navy. But 
the people were divided in sentiment, indisposed for war by a 



620 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




OBNEBAL D£ABBOKN. 



long continuance of peace, and unfit for its successful prosecu- 
tion by inexperience and irresolution. Their early movements 
in the new contest were marked by a character of indecision 
corresponding with this want of preparation. It was not till 
near the close of the conflict that the national spirit was fully 
roused ; and the results at that period were such as to show 
that, when fairly and heartily embarked in a contest, the people 
possess the same spirit and the same moral power which carried 
them so nobly through the struggle for independence. 

In organizing the army, Henry Dearborn, of Massachusetts 
was appointed major-general and commander-in-chief. He had 
served in the revolutionary contest, and had subsequently borne 
the office of secretary of war. Thomas Pinckney, of South 
Carolina, also received a commission as major-general, and 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAfi OF 1812. 621 

Wilkinson, Hampton, Bloomfield, and Hull were among the 
brigadier-generals. 

The army, which until the year 1808 had numbered no more 
than three thousand men, had then been augmented to six thou- 
sand. In January, 1812, congress had directed a force of up- 
wards of twenty-five thousand to be raised, so that the entire 
force authorized by law now exceeded thirty-five thousand, in- 
cluding ofiicers ; consisting of twenty-five regiments of infantry, 
three of artillery, two of light artillery, two of dragoons, and 
two rifle regiments. In addition to this, the president was au- 
thorized to accept the services of any number of volunteers, not 
exceeding fifty thousand, who were to be armed and equipped 
by the United States ; and a similar authority was given to him 
to call upon the governors of states for detachments of militia, 
the whole of which was not to exceed one hundred thousand. 

Though apparently formidable, this force wanted many of the 
requisites of an efficient army. The act authorizing the raising 
of twenty-five thousand men had been passed so short a time 
before the declaration of war, that scarcely one-fourth of that 
number was enlisted; and these were by no means in a high 
state of discipline. The volunteers and militia were yet to be 
called for, as occasion might require, and their services were 
considered of very doubtful utility. Even in the revolutionary 
war, they had been pronounced, by high authority, a most in- 
efficient species of force, and the long peace had certainly not 
increased their efficiency. The officers, however, who had the 
direction of the military force, had served with distinction, and 
high hopes were entertained of a successful campaign. 

The whole navy of the United States consisted of but ten 
frigates, five of which were laid up in ordinary, ten sloops and 
smaller vessels, and one hundred and sixty-five gun-boats, only 
sixty of which were in commission. With this trifling force, war 
was commenced with a power that numbered a thousand ships 
afloat, and boasted herself the mistress of the ocean. The com- 
merce and fisheries of the United States, however, had given her 
the elements of a navy ; and if the Americans had not many 
ships, subsequent events proved that they had men ; and that 
the efficiency of a navy depends more upon discipline and cou- 
rage than upon the size and number of its vessels. 

The plan of operations at the commencement of the war was 



622 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




COLONEL HAOARIHUB. 



to garrison and defend the sea-board principally by occasional 
calls on the militia, aided by a few of the regular troops, the 
whole to be under the direction of the generals of the regular 
army, stationed at the most important points. The remaining 
regular troops, with such volunteers as could be procured and 
a portion of the militia, were to attack the British posts in Up- 
per Canada and subdue them, with the ultimate design of in- 
vading and conquering Lower Canada. 

With these views, William Hull, the governor of Michigan 
territory, having been appointed a brigadier-general, on the 
25th of May, took command of the army destined for the in- 
vasion of Canada. On the 1st of June, he rendezvoused at 
U rbanna, in Ohio. His force consisted of five hundred regular 
troops, and twelve hundred Ohio volunteers, under the com- 
mand of Colonels McArthur and Cass. Proceeding in a north- 
westerly direction, the army marched through a wilderness to 
Detroit, the capital of Michigan territory, situated on the west 
bank of Detroit river. 

On his arrival at this place. General Hull was joined by the 
Michigan militia ; and expecting the co-operation of General 
Dearborn on the Niagara frontier, he made his descent on Ca- 
nada on the 12th of July. He crossed the river and established 
his head-quarters at Sandwich, a village on the opposite bank. 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR OF 1812. 623 

Here he issued a proclamation, offering peace and protection to 
the Canadians who would remain at home, and threatening ex- 
termination to such as should be found in arms associated with 
the Indians. He further declared that he commanded a force 
sufficient to "look down all opposition," which was but the van 
of a much greater force. In consequence of this proclamation, 
several hundred Canadian militia joined the Americans, or re- 
turned to their homes under General Hull's protection. 

Meantime the British had collected a considerable force of 
Canadians and Indians, and strengthened their garrison at 
Maiden. 

Excepting some skirmishing parties under the command of 
Colonels McArthur and Cass, nothing was done to promote the 
objects of the invasion till August 8th; General Hull remaining 
during the interval in his encampment at Sandwich. He then 
gave orders for the main body to re-cross the river and retire to 
Detroit, abandoning the Canadians who had accepted his pro- 
tection to the vengeance of their own government, and disgusting 
his own men with his inertness and pusillanimity. 

Towards the last of July, a reinforcement of one hundred and 
fifty volunteers from Ohio, under Captain Brush, who had been 
ordered to join General Hull, arrived at the river Raisin, thirty- 
six miles below Detroit. Here they were ordered to await an 
escort from the camp. Two hundred militia, under Major Van- 
horn, being sent on this service, fell into an ambuscade of In- 
dians, and were obliged to retreat, with the loss of seventeen 
killed and thirty wounded. 

On the 8th of August, a detachment of six hundred men, un- 
der Colonel Miller, being despatched on the same service, were 
attacked by a large body of British and Indians within fourteen 
miles of Detroit. The enemy was gallantly resisted, and com- 
pelled to retreat with a heavy loss ; but the detachment returned 
to Detroit on the 10th, without effecting its object. 

While these events were passing. General Brock, the governor 
of Canada, had been making active preparations for its defence. 
He issued a proclamation in answer to that of General Hull, re- 
minding the Canadians of their previous prosperity and freedom 
under the British government, and calling upon them to join 
his standard. This address was not without effect. The Ca- 
nadians joined the governor in great numbers, and on the 13th 



624 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




COLONEL CASS. 



of August, General Brock arrived at Maiden, with a respectable 
force, just after the American troops had retired from the Ca- 
nadian shore, dispirited and disgusted with their commander. 
On the 15th, General Brock erected batteries on the bank of the 
river opposite Detroit, and summoned the American general to 
surrender ; stating that he should otherwise be unable to restrain 
^he Indians from committing their usual atrocities. This sum- 
mons was answered by a refusal, and a declaration that the for- 
tress would be defended to the last extremity. The firing from 
the fortifications on both sides now commenced, and continued 
with little efiect till the next day. 

General Hull had by this time become so much alarmed as 
to betray his cowardice to his own officers and men, by his ap- 
pearance and his hasty and irregular measures. On the 12th 
the field-officers had determined to arrest him, and were only 
prevented by the absence of Colonels Cass and McArthur, who 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR OF 1812. 625 

had been detached with 400 men on a third expedition to the 
river Raisin. On the 15th they received orders to return. 

On the 16th, the British troops began to cross the river to the 
American side, three miles below the town, under cover of two 
ships of war. Having landed, they commenced their march 
towards the fort. Besides the fourth regiment of regular troops 
stationed in the fort, it was protected by the Ohio volunteers, 
and a part of the Michigan militia, placed behind the pickets 
where the whole flank of the British would have been exposed 
to their fire. The remainder of the militia were stationed in 
the town of Detroit, for the purpose of resisting the desultory 
attacks of the savages. Two four-pounders, loaded with grape, 
were placed on an eminence, ready to sweep the advancing 
columns. McArthur and Cass, on their return from the expe- 
dition on which they had been ordered, had arrived within view 
of Detroit, and were ready to attack the enemy on the rear. 
There was every reason to anticipate a victory, and the troops 
were eagerly expecting the commencement of the battle. 

When the British columns were within five hundred yards of the 
American line. General Hull ordered the troops to retire into the 
fort, and the artillery not to fire. A white flag was then hoisted, 
and a British officer rode up to inquire the cause. A commu- 
nication was opened between the commanding generals, which 
speedily terminated in a capitulation. The fortress of Detroit, 
with the garrison and munitions of war, were surrendered. The 
detachment under Cass and McArthur, and even the troops at 
the river Baisin, were included in the capitulation. Captain 
Brush, however, not considering himself bound by Hull's en- 
gagement, on being summoned to surrender, broke up his camp 
and retreated towards Ohio. The Canadians who had joined 
Hull, or accepted his protection, were abandoned to their fate, 
and many of them were subsequently executed as traitors. 

Every circumstance which could heighten the disgrace of a 
surrender was found in the present instance. Hull did not even 
call a council of his officers. His only object seems to have 
been to escape from the Indian scalping-knife. When he had 
first entered Canada the British had at Maiden but 100 regu- 
lar troops, 400 Canadian militia, and a few hundred Indians. 
After General Brock's arrival, their whole force was 330 regu- 
lars, 400 militia, and 600 Indians. The army surrendered by 
79 3C 



626 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

General Hull amounted to 2500 men, of whom 1200 weie 
militia. 

The indignation of the Americans at this disgraceful transac- 
tion knew no bounds. When the arrogant proclamation of Hull 
was contrasted with his subsequent indecisive and timid move- 
ments, and his ultimate abandonment of all manhood or decency, 
his whole conduct was regarded with a unanimous feeling of 
derision and contempt. The government, of course, brought 
him to trial by court martial as soon as he was exchanged. He 
was charged with treason, cowardice, and neglect of duty, found 
guilty of the two latter charges, and sentenced to be shot. In 
consideration of former services his life was spared. The trial 
did not take place till 1814, but it is mentioned in this connec- 
tion in order that the whole affair may be dismissed as speedily 
as possible from the reader's notice. 

The surrender of Hull left the north-western frontier exposed 
to the incursions of the British and Indians, and occasioned 
considerable alarm in the neighbouring states. Nearly ten 
thousand volunteers immediately offered their services to the 
government ; and being placed under the command of General 
William H. Harrison, marched towards the territory of Michi- 
gan. This force, however, was not sufficiently disciplined to 
act with the efficiency of regular troops, and before any thing 
could be done towards retrieving the important losses of the 
early part of the campaign, the winter set in. Their operations 
were chiefly confined to incursions into the country of the In- 
dians, who had generally become hostile. 

General Van Rensselaer, of the New York militia, had com- 
mand of what was called the army of the centre, destined also 
for the invasion of Canada. His force consisted of regulars 
and militia, who were assembled at Lewistown, on the Niagara 
river. On the opposite side of the river was a fortified British 
post, called Queenstown, which was the first object of attack. 
On the 13th of October, a detachment of 1000 men, led by 
Colonel Van Rensselaer, crossed the river and effected a land- 
N ing under a heavy fire from the British. 

In the onset, the colonel was wounded ; and the troops under 
Colonels Christie and Scott were led on to the assault of the 
fortress. They succeeded in capturing it ; and a reinforce- 
ment of six hundred men, under General Brock, arriving and 



COMMENCEMENT OF THE WAR OF 1812. 



627 




BATTLE OF QUEENBTOWN. 



attacking the victors, were repulsed with the loss of their com- 
mander. 

General Van Rensselaer had crossed the river, and now re- 
turned to hring over a reinforcement of the Americans. But 
his troops refused to ohey the order ; and the British, receiving 
another reinforcement, recaptured the fort after a severe 
engagement, in which the greater part of Colonel Van Rensse- 
laer's detachment was destroyed. 

General Van Rensselaer now retired from the service, and 
was succeeded by General Smyth, of Virginia. He commenced 
operations by issuing a proclamation addressed to the " men of 
New York," and couched in terms similar to those employed by 
General Hull. He was soon at the head of an army of 4500 
men ; and the 28th of November was the day appointed for 
crossing the river for the third invasion of Canada. The troops 
were embarked, but the enemy appearing on the opposite shore 
with a determined front, a council of war was held, and the 
invasion was postponed till the 1st of December, when, although 
1500 of the men were ready and willing to cross the river, a 
second council of war decided that it was inexpedient to pro- 



628 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



ceed, and the troops were again debarked. The invasion of 
Canada at that point was thus finally abandoned for the season 
The army of the north was commanded by General Dearborn 
A part of the forces were stationed at Greenbush, near Albany, 
and the remainder at Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain. Thi^ 
division of the army effected nothing but an incursion intc 
Canada, in which a small body of British and Indians and 
some military stores were taken. The failure of the other 
expeditions had the effect of discouraging the general from any 
serious attempt on the British territory. 




PORT NIAGARA. 



CAPTURE OF THE GUERRIERE. 



' 62i) 




CAPTAIN HULL. 



CAPTURE OF THE GUERRIERE. 




HE disasters of the Americans 
in the land campaign of 1812 
were compensated by several bril- 
liant victories. The first remark- 
able naval victory was that of the 
frigate Constitution, Captain Hull, 
over the frigate Guerriere, Cap- 
tain Dacres. The action took 
place on the Wth of August, 1812. 
At half-past three, P. M., Captain Hull made out his an- 
tagonist to be a frigate, and continued the chase till he was 
within about three miles, when he cleared for action ; the chase 

3c2 



030 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

backed her main-topsail and waited for him to come down. A8 
soon as the Constitution was ready, Hull bore down to bring 
the enemy to close action immediately ; but, on his coming 
within gun-shot, the Guerriere gave a broadside and filled away 
and wore, giving a broadside on the other tack, but without 
effect, her shot falling short. She then continued wearing and 
manoeuvring for about three-quarters of an hour to get a raking 
position ; but, finding she could not, she bore up and ran under 
her topsails and jib, with the wind on the quarter. During this 
time, the Constitution not having fired a single broadside, the 
impatience of the officers and men to engage was excessive. 
Nothing but the most rigid discipline could have restrained 
them. Hull, however, was preparing to decide the contest in a 
summary method of his own. He now made sail to bring the 
Constitution up with her antagonist, and at five minutes before 
six, P. M., being alongside within half pistol-shot, he commenced 
a heavy fire from all his guns, double-shotted with round and 
grai^e, and so well directed and so well kept up was the fire, 
that in sixteen minutes the mizen-mast of the Guerriere went 
by the board, and her mainyard in the slings, and the hull, rig- 
ging, and sails were completely torn to pieces. The fire was 
kept up for fifteen minutes longer, when the main and foremast 
went, taking with them every spar except the bowsprit, and 
leaving the Guerriere a complete wreck. On seeing this, Hull 
ordered the firing to cease, having brought his enemy in thirty 
minutes after he was fairly alongside to such a condition that 
a few more broadsides must have carried her down. 

The prize being so shattered that she was not worth bringing 
into port, after removing the prisoners to the Constitution, she 
was set on fire and blown up. In the action, the Constitution 
lost seven killed and seven wounded ; the Guerriere, fifteen 
killed, sixty-two wounded, including the captain and several 
officers, and twenty-four missing. 

The news of this victory was received in the United States 
with the greatest joy and exultation. All parties united in 
celebrating it, and the citizens and public authorities vied with 
each other in bestowing marks of approbation upon Captain 
Hull and his gallant officers and crew. 



CAPTURE OF THE FROLIC. 




CAPTAIN JONES. 



CAPTURE OF THE FROLIC AND THE 
MACEDONIAN. 



N 1811, Captain Jacob Jones was transferred 
by the secretary of the navy to the com- 
mand of the sloop-of-war Wasp, mounting 
eighteen twenty-four pound carronades ; and 
was despatched, in the spring of 1812, with 
communications from our government to its 
functionaries at the courts of St. Cloud and St. James. Before 
he returned from this voyage, war had been declared by the 
United States against Great Britain. Captain Jones refitted 
his ship with all possible despatch, and repaired to sea on a 
cruise, in which he met with no other luck than the capture of 
an inconsiderable prize. 




632 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

He sailed from the port of Philadelphia on the 13th of 
October, 1812, with a gallant set of officers, and a high-spirited 
and confident crew. On the 18th of the same month, the 
Wasp encountered a heavy gale, during which she lost her jib- 
boom and two valuable seamen. On the following night, being 
a bright moonlight, a seaman on the look-out discovered fiv? 
strange sail, steering eastward. The Wasp hauled to the wind- 
ward and closely watched the movements of these vessels until 
daylight next morning, being the 18tb, when it was found 
that they were six large merchant vessels under convoy of a 
sloop-of-war. The former were well manned, two of them 
mounting sixteen guns each. Notwithstanding the apparent 
disparity of force, Captain Jones determined to hazard an at- 
tack, and, as the weather was boisterous, and the swell of the 
sea unusually high, he ordered down top-gallant yards, closely 
reefed the topsails, and prepared for action. The convoy sailed 
ahead and lay to, five or six miles distant, while the sloop-of- 
war, with Spanish colours flying, remained under easy sail, the 
Wasp coming down to windward on her larboard side, within 
pistol-shot, displaying the American ensign and pendant. Upon 
the enemy's being hailed, he hauled down the Spanish flag, 
hoisted the British ensign, and opened a broadside of cannon 
and musketry. The fire was promptly returned by the Wasp, 
the vessels gradually neared each other, and each maintained 
the combat with great animation, the English vessel firing with 
most rapidity, but, as the result proved, with no great precision. 
In a few minutes after the commencement of the action, the 
main-topmast of the Wasp was shot away, and, falling on the 
topsail yard, across the larboard fore and foretop-sail braces, 
caused the head yards to be unmanageable during the conti- 
nuance of the action. In two or three minutes more, the gaft 
and mizzen-top-gallant sail were shot away. Each vessel con- 
tinued in the position in which the action commenced, and main- 
tained a close and spirited fire. Captain Jones directed his 
officers not to fire except when the vessel rolled downwards, so 
that the shot was either poured on the enemy's deck or below 
it, while the English fired as soon as they had loaded, without 
regard to the position of their vessel, and thus their balls were 
either thrown away or passed through the rigging. The Wasp 
now passed ahead of the enemy, raked her, and resumed her 



CAPTURE OF THE FROLIC. 



633 




WASP AND FROLIC. 



original position. It was now obvious that the Wasp had 
greatly the advantage in the combat, and Captain Jones 
thought the contest might be speedily decided by boarding, but 
hesitated because the roughness of the sea might endanger the 
safety of both vessels if brought in contact. As, however, the 
braces and rigging of the Wasp were so injured by the shot of 
the enemy that he was fearful his masts, being unsupported, 
would go by the board, and that the enemy might escape, he 
therefore determined at all hazards to board and thus decide 
the contest. With this determination he wore ship, run athwart 
the enemy's bow, so that the jib-boom came in between the 
main and mizzen rigging of the Wasp. The enemy being 
in a position so inviting for a raking broadside, one was 
promptly ordered. So closely in contact were the contending 
vessels, that, while loading, the rammers of the Wasp struck 
against the sides of the opposing vessel, so that two of the 
guns of the former entered through the bow of the ports of the 
latter and swept the whole length of the deck. At this junc- 
ture, a sprightly and gallant seaman, named Jack Lang, who 
bad once been impressed on board a British man-of-war, jumped 
80 



634 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

on a gun with his cutlass, and was about to leap on board the 
enemy, when Captain Jones ordered him back, wishing to give 
a closing broadside before boarding. His impetuosity, however, 
could not be restrained, and, observing the ardour of the crew 
generally, Lieutenants Biddle and Booth gallantly led them on ; 
but, to their great surprise, when they reached the enemy's 
deck not a single uninjured individual was found on deck ex- 
cept the seaman at the wheel and three officers. The deck was 
covered with the dying and dead, and was slippery with blood. 
When Lieutenant Biddle reached the quarter-deck, the com- 
mander and two other officers threw down their swords, and 
made an inclination of their bodies, thus affording evidence 
that they had surrendered. 

During the early part of the action, the ensign of the enemy 
had been shot down, upon which a British seaman carried it 
aloft again and nailed it to the mast. In this state it continued 
floating, they not being able to lower it, until one of the United 
States officers ascended the rigging and tore it from its attach- 
ments. In forty-three minutes from the commencement of the 
action, full possession was taken of the enemy, which proved 
to be his Britannic majesty's sloop-of-war Frolic, commanded 
by Captain Whynyates. 

On examining the berth-deck, it was found crowded with the 
dead and wounded, there being but an inconsiderable propor- 
tion of the crew of the Frolic which had escaped unhurt. Soon 
after Lieutenant Biddle took possession of the enemy, her 
masts fell by the board, so that she lay a complete wreck. The 
contest being now terminated, Captain Jones ordered Dr. Noav, 
the assistant surgeon of the Wasp, to visit the wounded enemy, 
and to carry with him every thing on board which could in 
any manner contribute to their comfort. 

The force of the Frolic consisted of sixteen thirty-two pound 
carronades, four twelve-pounders on the main-deck, and two 
twelve-pound carronades. She was, therefore, superior to the 
Wasp, by four twelve-pounders. The officers of the Frolic 
stated that the number of men on the ship's books was one 
hundred and ten; but, as boats were seen plying between the 
Frolic and some of the convoy in the morning before the 
action, it was believed that she received many volunteers in 
addition to her regular crew. This belief was strengthened by 



CAPTURE OF THE FROLIC. tJ35 

the circumstance, that one of the vessels in the convoy came 
alongside the Wasp next morning after her capture, and asked 
assistance to reef his sails, as he had but two men and a boy 
on board. It was intimated that he had thus diminished his 
crew by allowing volunteers to go on board the Frolic. 

The officers, seamen, marines, and boys on board the Wasp, 
numbered one hundred and thirty-five, which, from the best 
information which could be obtained, was less in number than 
that of the enemy. Both vessels, however, had more men than 
was essential to their efficiency, and the officers of the Frolic 
candidly acknowledged that they had more men than they 
knew what to do with. It appears, therefore, that, while there 
was an equality of strength in the crews, there was an ine- 
quality in the number of guns and weight of metal, the Frolic 
having four twelve-pounders more than the Wasp. 

The exact number of killed and wounded on board the Frolic 
could not be ascertained with any degree of precision ; but, 
from the admissions of the British officers, it was supposed that 
the number killed was about thirty, including two officers ; and 
of those wounded, between forty and fifty. The captain and 
every other officer on board were more or less severely wounded. 
The Wasp sustained a loss of only five men killed and fivv3 
wounded. 

A busy scene now ensued, in disposing of the dead, taking 
care of the wounded, and repairing the damages which the 
Wasp sustained during the conflict. Lieutenant Biddle and 
a portion of the officers and crew of the Wasp were similarly 
engaged on board the Frolic. While engaged in erecting jury- 
masts on board the latter vessel, a suspicious sail was seen to 
windward, upon which Captain Jones directed Lieutenant Bid- 
die to shape her course for Charleston, or any other southern 
port of the United States, while the Wasp would continue her 
cruise. 

The strange sail coming down rapidly, both vessels prepared 
for action, but soon discovered, to the mortification of the vic- 
tors of this well-fought action, that the new enemy was a 
seventy-four, which proved to be the Poictiers, commanded by 
Commodore Beresford. Firing a shot over the Frolic, she 
passed her, and soon overhauled the Wasp, which, in her crip- 
pled state, was unable to escape. Both vessels were thus cap- 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

tured and carried into Bermuda. Captain Jones and his 
officers were placed on parole of honour at St. George's, Ber- 
muda, and were treated there with great courtesj, particularly 
by the officers of the ninety-eighth and one hundred and second 
regiments of British infantry. Dinners, balls, and other acts 
of civility were tendered with a cordiality of manner which 
made our officers almost forget their misfortunes. 

After remaining in St. George's a few weeks, a cartel was 
prepared, by which the officers and crew of the Wasp were con- 
veyed to New York. On the return of Captain Jones to the 
United States, he was everywhere received with demonstrations 
of the highest respect and admiration for the skill and gallantry 
which he displayed in his combat with the enemy. In his jour- 
ney to Washington, whither he was ordered by the President 
of the United States, he received brilliant entertainments in 
the cities through which he passed. 

The legislature of Delaware, his native state, gave to him 
a vote of thanks and an elegant piece of plate, with appro- 
priate engravings. On motion of James A. Bayard, of Dela- 
ware, the Congress of the United States appropriated twenty- 
five thousand dollars, as a compensation to Captain Jones, hie 
officers, and crew, for the loss they sustained by the recapture 
of the Frolic. They also voted a gold medal to Captain Jones, 
and a silver medal to each of his commissioned officers. 

On the 25th of October, 1812, in latitude 29° N., longi- 
tude 29° 30' W., Commodore Decatur, commanding the frigate 
United States, fell in with his Britannic majesty's ship Mace- 
donian, mounting forty-nine carriage guns, the odd gun shift- 
ing. She was a frigate of the largest class, two years old, four 
months out of dock, and reputed one of the best sailers in the 
British service. The action, after lasting an houi' and a half, in 
consequence of the enemy being to windward, and having the 
advantage of engaging at his own distance, terminated in the 
capture of the Macedonian. The British ship lost her mizen- 
mast, fore and main-topmasts and mainyard, and was much cut 
up in her hull. The damage sustained by the United States 
was not so much as to render her return into port necessary, 
and had Commodore Decatur not deemed it important to see 
his prize in, he would have continued the cruise. 




SD 



CAPTURE OF THE JAVA. 



63!. 




COMMODORE BAINBBIDGE. 



CAPTURE OF THE JAVA. 

HE Constitution, under the command of 
Commodore Bainbridge, sailed on 
the 26th October, and arrived oW 
St. Salvador on the 13th Decem- 
^Mi ber. On the 29th, in latitude 
E 13° 6' south, and about ten 
leagues from the coast of Brazil, 

the Constitution fell in with an 

enemy'sTvJ^te, the Java, bound for the East Indies, with a 
number of supernumerary officers and seamen for the Bombay 




640 ir^CIDENTS Of MODERN HISTORY. 

station. The commodore, finding the frigate fairly within 
his reach, prepared with alacrity for action. The stranger 
showed English colours, and bore down, with the intention of 
raking the Constitution. Bainbridge avoided this, and the 
enemy having hauled down colours, and left flying a jack only, 
the commodore gave orders to fire ahead of the enemy to make 
him show full colours. This was returned with a full broadside, 
and a general action commenced, both ships striving to rake 
and to avoid being raked. 

Soon after the commencement of the action, Bainbridge re- 
ceived a ball in the hip ; and a few minutes later a shot carried 
away the wheel, and drove a small bolt with violence into his 
thigh. These injuries did not induce him to sit down, and he 
continued on deck, giving orders until eleven o'clock at night. 
The action lasted an hour and fifty-five minutes, when the enemy 
struck her flag, and the American commodore sent Lieutenant 
Parker to take possession. The Java was commanded by Cap- 
tain Lambert, a distinguished officer, who was mortally wounded, 
and died a few days after the battle. The enemy's loss was not 
less than sixty killed and one hundred wounded. The Consti- 
tution lost nine killed and twenty-five wounded. The two ves- 
sels presented a striking contrast in appearance, at the close of 
the action : the Constitution " actually coming out of the battle 
as she had gone into it, with royal-yards across, and every spar, 
from the highest to the lowest, in its place," though some of 
them were considerably injured; while the Java lay upon the 
water an unmanageable wreck, with every spar shot away, and 
but a few stumps left standing. Bainbridge displayed great 
kindness in the treatment of his prisoners, and having destroyed 
his prize, he landed his captives at St. Salvador, on parole of 
honour not to engage in hostilities against the United States, 
until exchanged. 

The Constitution soon returned home for repairs, and Bain- 
bridge entered Boston harbour in triumph. 





fel 



MASSACRE OF THE RIVER RAISIN. 



643 




GENBEAL WINOIIESIEU. 



MASSACRE OF THE RIVER RAISIN, AND 
SIEGE OF FORT MEIGS. 



HE people of the Western States were 
naturally anxious to recover the posts 
which had been lost by General Hull 
on the north-western frontier ; and 
thus to relieve themselves from the 
danger of incursions from the British 
and Indians in that region. During 
the autumn of 1812, General Harrison, 
who had command of the army in that quarter, was principally 
occupied in collecting and organizing his forces preparatory to 
a winter campaign. Nothing of importance was effected, as 
we have already had occasion to remark, before the winter set in. 
General Winchester, with a detachment of seven hundred 
and fifty men, was sent forward in advance of the main body ; 




644 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

and while General Harrison was collecting his forces at San- 
dusky, with a view to join Winchester, and advance upon Mai- 
den and Detroit, the latter officer received a pressing call from 
the inhabitants of Frenchtown, on the river Raisin, for protection 
against the British and Indians assembled at Maiden. Ad- 
vancing within three miles of the town, on the 17th of January, 
he learned that the enemy had already taken possession of it. 
He attacked them on the 18th, and drove them from their po; 
sition with considerable slaughter. On the 20th, he advanced 
to within twenty miles of Maiden, where a British force much 
stronger than his own was stationed. 

General Winchester's desire to afford a relief to the inhabi- 
tants of Frenchtown had thus brought his detachment into a 
situation of no little peril. The expedition in which he was en- 
gaged had been undertaken without the knowledge of General 
Harrison, who, on learning his advance, sent for reinforcements, 
and pushed forward with the main body in hopes of affording 
him relief. 

The British were not slow to perceive their advantage. On 
the evening of the 21st of January, Colonel Proctor left Maiden 
with six hundred British and Canadian troops, and one thousand 
Indians, under the command of their chiefs, Splitlog and Round- 
head, and at daybreak of the 22d, commenced a furious attack 
upon the Americans. General Winchester's left wing, amounting 
to six hundred men, was protected by pickets ; the right wing, 
one hundred und fifty in number, being exposed, was speedily 
defeated, and nearly the whole massacred by the Indians, who 
cut off their retreat. A detachment of one hundred sent out to 
their relief shared the same fate. General Winchester and Col- 
onel Lewis, in attempting to rally them, were made prisoners. 
The left wing sustained the unequal contest with undaunted 
valour until eleven o'clock, when General Winchester capitu- 
lated for them, stipulating for their protection from the fury of 
the Indians. This engagement was violated on the next day, 
when a large body of Indians fell upon the wounded, toma- 
hawked and scalped them, and, setting fire to the houses, con- 
sumed the dead and the dying in one undistinguished confla- 
gration. In permitting this massacre. Proctor seems to have 
counted on daunting the courage of the Americans. But the 
effect was directly the reverse of what was intended. New 



MASSACRE OF THE RIVER RAISIN. 



645 




UASSACAB 07 IBS BITER RAISIN. 



volunteers, fired by these barbarities, flocked to the standard of 
their country, and were eventually successful in avenging their 
murdered fellow citizens. 

General Harrison, having received considerable reinforce- 
ments from Kentucky and Ohio, advanced to the rapids of the 
Miami, and there erected a fort which he called Fort Meigs, in 
honour of the governor of Ohio. This position had been se- 
lected as a suitable post for receiving reinforcements and sup- 
plies from Ohio and Kentucky, protecting the borders of Lake 
Erie, and concentrating the forces intended for the recapture 
of Detroit, and the invasion of Canada. 

On the 26th of April, General Proctor, with two thousand 
regulars, militia, and Indians, from Maiden, appeared on the 
bank of the river opposite the fort, and, erecting batteries on an 
eminence, commenced a regular siege. The Indians crossed the 
river on the 27th, and established themselves in the rear of the 
American lines. A heavy fire of shot and shells was poured 
in upon the fort for several days, and on the 3d of May, a bat- 
tery was erected on the left bank of the river, within two hun- 
dred and fifty yards of the American lines. 

General Harrison now received a summons to surrender, 
which was gallantly refused. On the fjth of May, General Chiy, 



646 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GENERAL HAKRISON. 



with twelve hundred Kentuckians, advanced to the relief of 
Fort Meigs, and by a spirited attack, succeeded in driving the 
besiegers from their works. Eight hundred of his troops hav- 
ing subsequently dispersed in the woods, in pursuit of the In- 
dians, were drawn into an ambuscade, and compelled to sur- 
render. They were saved from massacre only by the decisive 
interference of the Indian chief Tecumseh, who humanely re- 
strained his followers from their usual atrocities. Of the eight 
hundred men only one hundred and fifty escaped, the remainder 
being slain or captured. General Proctor, seeing no prospect 
of taking the fort, and being deserted by his Indian allies, who 
were heartily weary of the siege, abandoned his position on the 
9th of May, and returned to Maiden. General Harrison, having 
repaired the fort, left it under the command of General Clay, 
and returned to Ohio for reinforcements. Nothing further was 
attempted in this quarter until a naval force was ready for ac- 
tion on Lake Erie. 




CAPTURE OF YORK. 



647 




COMMODORE OHAUNCEY. 



CAPTURE OF YORK, AND DEFENCE OF 
SACKETT'S HARBOUR. 





HE principal object of 
the campaign of 1813, 
on the Canadian bor- 
der, was the capture of 
Montreal. To effect 
this, it was essential to gain the 
command of Lake Ontario. Sack- 
ett's Harbour, on the east end of 
^ the lake, near its outlet, was se- 
lected as a naval depot ; and Com- 
modore Chauncey had been occu- 
pied since the month of October, 1812, in building and equip- 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




Si-CKETT'S HAEBODR. 



fpmg a squadron sufficiently powerful to cope with that of the 
■enemy, which consisted of six vessels, mounting in all eighty 
guns,. In this he was successful ; and having made several cap- 
tures in the autumn of 1812, he was enabled, in the spring of 
the /n«xt year, to acquire the complete ascendency on the lake, 
confining every British ship to the harbour of Kingston. 

General Dearborn had now under his command a respectable 
force of six thousand men, composing the army of the north ; 
and as Montreal was in a comparatively defenceless state, and 
could receive no reinforcements until June, it was his proper 
policy to have made an immediate descent upon that city. Unfor- 
tunately his exertions were directed to a much less important 
object. On the 23d of April, he embarked at Sackett's Harbour 
with sixteen hundred men, on an expedition against York, the 
capital of Upper Canada, situated at the head of Lake Ontario. 
On the 27th he arrived at his destination, and immediately com- 
menced a disembarkation. Remaining on board the fleet, he 
intrusted the command to General Pike, who succeeded in 
landing, though opposed by a superior force of the enemy, who, 
after a severe action, were driven to their fortifications. The 
remainder of the forces having efl"ected a landing, the whole 
3.rmy advanced to the assault, carried the first battery, and was 



CAPTURE OF YORK. 



649 




GENERAL PI K E. 



approaching the main works, when a magazine of the British, 
prepared for the purpose, hlew up with a tremendous explosion, 
destroying one hundred of the assailants. General Pike was 
mortally wounded by a stone which was thrown up by the ex- 
plosion and struck him on the breast. 

He was immediately conveyed on board the commodore's ship, 
and soon expired. The troops paused a few moments at this 
unexpected catastrophe, but soon pressed forward and gained 
the possession of the town. The government hall was burned, 
contrary to the orders of the American general. The British 
lost one hundred killed, and six hundred wounded and prisoners. 
The Americans, three hundred and twenty killed and wounded. 
The object of the expedition being attained, the fleet pro- 
ceeded to Niagara, landed the troops, and returned to Sackett's 
Harbour. 

On embarking for York, General Dearborn had left Sackett's 
82 3 E 



050 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



Harbour in rather a defenceless state. It was consequently 
attacked on the 29th of May, by the combined land and naval 
forces of the British, under Sir George Prevost and Sir James 
Yeo, General Brown, of the New York militia, had the chief 
command at the harbour. He detached Colonel Mills, with the 
militia and Albany volunteers, to oppose the enemy's landing. 
On their approach, the militia fired without orders, and too soon 
to produce any effect, and then fled. Colonel Mills was slain in 
attempting to rally them. General Brown succeeded in rallying 
about one hundred, and fell upon the enemy's rear. The British 
advanced towards the village, and encountering Colonel Backus, 
with the regular troops and a few militia, after a severe action 
were repulsed and driven to their boats. Lieutenant Chauncey, 
who had been ordered to set fire to the store-houses and bar- 
racks in case of defeat, anticipated that result, and thus caused 
the loss of the supplies which were essential to the success of 
the campaign. 




BEAIH OP GENEUAI, PIKE. 



DEFENCE OF FORT STEPHENSON. 



651 




COLONEL CEOQHAN. 



DEFENCE OF FORT STEPHENSON. 





on the 
siegers 



APTAIN CROGHAN com- 
manded, a short time, Fort 
Defiance, on the Miami of 
the lakes ; but after the 
defeat of General Winches- 
ter, he was ordered to Fort Meigs, upon 
■which the enemy designed an attack. 
Here General Harrison commanded in 
person. Every disposition, both for 
attack and defence, was made by the 
conflicting parties. The siege began 
28th of April, and on the 9th of May following the be- 
commenced their retreat, covered with disgrace. Here 



1)52 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Oroghan particularly signalized himself with his corps, by seve- 
ral handsome and brilliant charges on the enemy. For his con- 
duct on this occasion, he received the particular notice of the 
commanding general ; and was shortly after advanced to a ma- 
jority, and was stationed with his battalion at Upper Sandusky. 
From this he was ordered to Fort Stephenson, twenty miles 
above the mouth of Sandusky river, with orders from General 
Harrison to destroy the stores and abandon the fort, if the 
enemy made his appearance. Learning that the enemy de- 
signed to attack him, he disobeyed his orders, and immortalized 
his fame. He laboured day and night to place the fort in a 
state of defence. 

The necessity of cutting a ditch round the fort immediately 
presented itself to him. This was done ; but in order to render 
the enemy's plans abortive, should they even succeed in leaping 
the ditch, which was nine feet wide, and six deep, he had large 
logs placed on the top of the fort, and so adjusted that an in- 
considerable weight would cause them to fall from their position, 
and crush to death all who might be situated below. 

A short time before the action he wrote the following con- 
cise and impressive letter to a friend. " The enemy are not 
far distant : I expect an attack — I will defend this post to the 
last extremity. I have just sent away the women and children, 
that I may be able to act without encumbrance. Be satisfied : 
I hope to do my duty. The example set me by my revolution- 
ary kindred is before me — let me die rather than prove un- 
worthy of their name." 

,0n the first of August, General Proctor made his appearance 
before the fort. His troops consisted of 500 regulars, and 
about 700 Indians of the most ferocious kind. There were but 
133 efi"ective men in the garrison, and the works covered one 
acre of ground. The pickets were about ten feet high, sur- 
rounded by a ditch, with a block-house at each angle of the 
fort, one of which contained a six-pounder. This was the exact 
state of the post at the time the enemy appeared. The first 
movement made by the enemy was to make such a disposition 
of his forces as to prevent the escape of the garrison, if they 
should be disposed to attempt it. He then sent Colonel Elliot 
with a flag, to demand the surrender of the fort. He was met 
by Ensign Shipp. The British officer observed that General 



DEFENCE OF FORT STEPHENSON. 65o 

Proctor had a number of cannon, a large body of regular troops, 
and so many Indians, whom it was impossible to control, that 
if the fort was taken, as it must be, the whole of the garrison 
would be massacred. Shipp answered, that it was the deter- 
mination of Major Croghan, his officers, and men, to defend the 
garrison or be buried in it, and that they might do their best. 
Colonel Elliott addressed Mr. Shipp again — " You are a fine 
young man — I pity your situation — for God's sake surrender, 
and prevent the dreadful slaughter that must follow resist- 
ance." Shipp turned from him with indignation, and was 
immediately taken hold of by an Indian, who attempted to 
wrest his sword from him. Major Croghan, observing what 
passed, called to Shipp to come into the fort, which was instantly 
obeyed, and the action commenced. The firing began from 
the gun-boats in the rear, and was kept up during the night. 

At an early hour the next morning, three six-pounders, 
which had been planted during the night within two hundred 
and fifty yards of the pickets, began to play upon the fort, but 
with little effect. About four, P. M., all the enemy's guns were 
concentrated against the north-western angle of the fort, for the 
purpose of making a breach. To counteract the efi'ect of their 
fire, Major Croghan caused that point to be strengthened by 
means of bags of flour, sand, and other materials, in such a 
manner that the picketing sustained little or no injury. But 
the enemy, supposing that their fire had sufficiently shattered 
the pickets, advanced, to the number of five hundred, to storm 
the place, at the same time making two feints on difi"erent 
points. 

The column which advanced against the north-western angle 
was so completely enveloped in smoke, as not to be discovered 
until it had approached within eighteen or twenty paces of the 
lines, but the men being all at their posts, and ready to receive 
it, commenced so heavy and galling a fire as to throw the 
column into confusion ; but being quickly rallied. Lieutenant- 
colonel Short, the leader of the column, exclaimed, " Come on, 

my brave fellows, we will give these d d Yankee rascals no 

quarters," and immediately leaped into the ditch, followed by 
his troops. As soon as the ditch was entirely filled by the as- 
sailants. Major Croghan ordered the six-pounder, which had 
been masked in the block-house, to be fired. It had been loaded 

3£2 



651 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




DEFENCE OF FOET STEPHENSON. 



with a double charge of musket balls and slugs. The piece 
completely raked the ditch, from end to end. The first fire 
levelled the one half in death ; the second or third either killed 
or wounded every one except eleven, who were covered by the 
dead bodies. At the same time, the fire of small arms was so 
incessant and destructive, that it was in vain the British officers 
exerted themselves to lead on the balance of the column ; it 
retired in disorder under a shower of shot, and sought safety 
in an adjoining wood. The loss of the enemy in killed was 
about one hundred and fifty, besides a considerable number of 
their allies. The Americans had but one killed and seven 
slightly wounded. Early in the morning of the third, the ene- 
my retreated down the river, after having abandoned consider- 
able baggage. 

The garrison was composed of regulars, all Kentuckians ; a 
finer company of men was not to be found in the United States, 
perhaps not in the world. 

Notwithstanding his disobedience of orders, for the successful 
defence of this post. Major Croghan was raised to the rank of 
lieutenant-colonel. 



COMMODORE PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE. 655 




COHMODOBE FEBRT. 



COMMODORE PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE 
ERIE.— BATTLE OF THE THAMES. 



ERRY took charge of the 
flotilla of gun-boats station- 
ed in the harbour of New 
York, early in 1812, with 
the rank of master-com- 
mandant. Here he remain- 
ed about a year, disciplining 
his crews. As war had be- 
gun its ravages between 
Great Britain and the United States, he sought a more active 
sphere ; and, at his own request, he was transferred to the 
wryice on the lakes. 




656 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




BDILDING OF THE PLEET ON LAKE EEIE. 



In pursuance of this disposition of his services, he repaired 
with a reinforcement of seamen to Sackett's Harbour, on Lake 
Ontario, to act under Commodore Chauncej. The transporta- 
tion of the seamen from the sea-board to the harbour, from its 
novelty to the sons of Neptune, afforded them the highest 
amusement, particularly as it was a " land-cruise" in the depth 
of winter. 

After remaining at Sackett's Harbour some time, Commodore 
Chauncey despatched Perry to take charge of the squadron 
then fitted and fitting out on Lake Erie, and to hasten their 
equipments. At this time, the British fleet on that lake was 
commanded by Captain Barclay, an officer of high standing, 
rank, and skill, who had seen much service, and whose force 
was of superior strength to the American squadron. 

Perry pursued his object unmolested by the enemy, who was 
continually hovering about the harbour. Having equipped and 
manned his vessels, he buoyed them over the bar, on which was 
only five feet of water, at the harbour's mouth of the port of 
Erie, on the 4th of August, 1813. The enemy were peaceable 
spectators of the scene. The next day he sailed in pursuit of 
them, and returned to port on the 8th, without accomplishing 
his object. The day following he was reinforced by several 
officers, and eighty seamen under Lieutenant Elliot, which gave 



COMMODORE PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE. 657 

his squadron a full complement. He again sailed on the 12th, 
on a cruise, and on the 15th arrived at Sandusky Bay, in front 
of the encampment of the American army, commanded by 
General Harrison. Thence he proceeded to cruise oflf Maiden, 
and the British commander thought proper to hug his force, for 
protection, close under the guns of the British fortifications. 
The inhabitants were filled with terror and consternation at the 
sight of the American squadron, and the astonished Indian 
allies of the British crown urged the British squadron to put to 
sea, and give battle. They, however, felt themselves not dis- 
posed to risk an engagement ; and Perry returned to Sandusky 
Bay. 

Nothing of moment happened until the morning of the 10th 
of September. The American squadron was then lying at 
anchor at Put-in-Bay, and consisted of brigs Lawrence, Commo- 
dore Perry, twenty guns ; Niagara, Captain Elliot, twenty guns ; 
Caledonia, Purser McGrath, three guns ; schooners Ariel, Lieut. 
Packet, four guns; Scorpion, Sailing-master Champlin, two 
guns ; Somers, Almy, two guns and two swivels ; Tigress, Lieu- 
tenant Conklin, one gun ; Porcupine, Midshipman G. Senat, 
one gun ; sloop Trippe, Lieutenant Smith, one gun ; in all, 
fifty-four guns. 

At sunrise they discovered the enemy, and immediately got 
under way and stood for him, with a light wind at south-west. 
The British force consisted of ship Detroit, nineteen guns, one 
on pivot and two howitzers ; Queen Charlotte, seventeen guns, 
one on pivot ; schooner Lady Prevost, thirteen guns, one on 
pivot ; brig Hunter, ten guns ; sloop Little Belt, three guns ; 
schooner Chippeway, one gun, two swivels ; in all, sixty-three 
guns. 

At ten, A. M., the wind hauled to the south-east, and brought 
our squadron to windward. Commodore Perry then hoisted his 
union jack, having for a motto the dying words of the valiant 
Lawrence, " Don't give up the ship !" It was received with 
repeated cheerings by the officers and crews. And now, having 
formed his line, he bore for the enemy ; who likewise cleared 
for action, and hauled up his courses. As the hostile squadrons 
approached each other, suddenly a bugle was sounded from on 
board the enemy's ship Detroit, and loud huzzas immediately 
burst forth from all their crews. 
83 



658 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

As soon as tlie Lawrence came within the reach of the ene- 
my's long guns, they opened a heavy fire upon her, "which, from 
the shortness of her guns, she was unable to return. Perry, 
without waiting for his schooners, kept on his course, which 
induced the enemy to suppose it was his intention to board. In 
a few minutes, having gained a nearer position, he opened his 
fire. The length of the enemy's guns, however, gave them 
greatly the advantage, and the Lawrence was excessively cut 
up, without being able to do any great damage in return. Their 
shot pierced her sides in all directions, killing the men on the 
berth-deck and in the steerage, where they had been taken 
down to be dressed. One shot had nearly produced a fatal 
explosion ; passing through the light room, it knocked the snuff 
of the candle into the magazine ; fortunately the gunner hap- 
pened to see it, and had the presence of mind to extinguish it 
immediately with his hand. 

Their heaviest fire was directed at the Lawrence, and Perry, 
finding the hazard of his situation, made sail, and directed the 
other vessels to follow, for the purpose of closing with the foe. 
The tremendous fire, however, to which he was exposed, soon 
cut away every brace and bowline, and the Lawrence became 
unmanageable. 

Even in this disastrous plight, she sustained the action for 
upwards of two hours, within canister distance, though for a 
great part of the time the Lawrence could not get more 
than three guns to bear upon her antagonist. It was ad- 
mirable to behold the perfect order and regularity that pre- 
vailed among her valiant and devoted crew, throughout this 
scene of horror. No trepidation, no confusion occurred, even 
for an instant; as fast as the men were wounded, they were 
carried below, and others stept into their places ; the dead re- 
mained where they fell, until after the action. At this junc- 
ture, the fortune of the battle trembled on a point, and the 
enemy believed the day their own. The Lawrence was reduced 
to a mere wreck ; her decks were streaming with blood, and 
covered with mangled limbs, and the bodies of the slain ; nearly 
the whole of her crew were either killed or wounded ; her guns 
were dismounted, and the commodore and his officers helped to 
work the last gun that was capable of being used. 

Finding the Lawrence was incapable of further service, he 



' COMMODORE PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE. 669 

gave his vessel in charge to Lieutenant Yarnall, who had already 
distinguished himself by his bravery, and hauled down his 
union, bearing the motto of Lawrence, and taking it under his 
arm, ordered it to be put on board of the Niagara, which was 
then in close engagement. In leaving the Lawrence, he gave 
his pilot choice, either to remain on board or accompany him ; 
the pilot replied, " He'd stick by him to the last," and jumped 
into the boat. Perry went off from the ship standing up in the 
stern of the boat, until the crew absolutely pulled him down 
among them. Broadsides were levelled at him, and small arms 
discharged by the enemy, two of whose vessels were within 
musket-shot, and a third one nearer. His shipmates who re- 
mained behind stood watching him in anxiety; the balls struck 
around him and flew over his head in every direction ; but the 
same special Providence that seems to have watched over the 
youthful hero throughout this desperate battle, conducted him 
safely through a shower of shot, and they beheld with transport 
his flag hoisted at the masthead of the Niagara. No sooner was 
he on board, than Captain Elliot volunteered to put off in a 
boat, and bring into action the schooners which had been kept 
astern by light wind ; the offer was accepted, and Elliot left the 
Niagara to put it in execution. 

About this time the flag of the Lawrence came down. The 
event was unavoidable ; she had sustained the whole fury of the 
enemy, and was rendered incapable of defence : further show 
of resistance would have proved but a most useless and cruel 
carnage among the relics of her brave and mangled crew. The 
enemy, however, were not able to take possession of her, and 
subsequent circumstances enabled her again to hoist her flag. 

Commodore Perry now made signal for close action, and the 
small vessels got out t"heir sweeps and made all sail. Finding 
that the Niagara was but little injured, he determined, if pos- 
sible, to break the enemy's line. He accordingly bore up and 
passed ahead of the two ships and brig, giving them a raking 
fire from his starboard guns, and also to a large schooner and 
sloop from his larboard side, about half pistol-shot distance. 
Having passed the whole squadron, he luffed up and laid his 
ship alongside of the British commodore. The smaller vessels, 
under the direction of Captain Elliot, having in the mean time 
got within grape and canister distance, and keeping up a well- 



660 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

directed fire, the whole of the enemy struck, excepting two 
small vessels, which attempted to escape, but were afterwards 
taken. 

The engagement lasted about three hours, and never was vic- 
tory more decisive and complete. The captured squadron, as 
has been shown, exceeded ours in weight of metal and number 
of guns. Their crews were also more numerous ; the Ameri- 
cans were a motley collection of some good seamen, mixed with 
soldiers, volunteers, and boys, and many were on the sick list. 
More prisoners were taken than we had men to guard. The 
loss on both sides was severe. Scarcely any of the Lawrence's 
crew escaped unhurt. Among those slain was Lieutenant 
Brooks of the marines, a gay and elegant young officer, full of 
spirit, of amiable manners, and remarkable for his personal 
beauty. Lieutenant Yarnall, though repeatedly wounded, re- 
fused to quit the deck, during the whole of the action. Com- 
modore Perry, notwithstanding that he was continually in the 
most exposed situations of the battle, escaped uninjured ; he 
wore an ordinary seaman's dress, which, perhaps, prevented 
him from being picked off by the enemy's sharp-shooters. He 
had a younger brother with him on board the Lawrence, as mid- 
shipman, who was equally fortunate in receiving no injury, 
though his shipmates fell all around him. Two Indian chiefs 
had been stationed in the tops of the Detroit, but when the ac- 
tion became warm, so panic-struck were they with the terrors 
of the scene, and the strange perils that surrounded them, that 
they fled precipitately to the hold of the ship, where they were 
found, after the battle, in a state of utter consternation. The 
bodies of several other Indians were said to have been found 
the next day on the shores of the lake, supposed to have been 
slain during the engagement and thrown overboard. 

The loss of the British in killed and wounded was estimated 
at one hundred and sixty, and that of the Americans at one 
hundred and twenty-three. On board the British fleet, the 
captain and first lieutenant of the Queen Charlotte were killed. 
Commodore Barclay, of the Lady Prevost, was severely wounded 
and lost his hand. He, however, did himself honour by the 
brave and obstinate resistance which he made. He was a fine- 
looking officer, then about thirty-six years of age. He had seen 
much service, having been desperately wounded in the battle of 




8T 



COMMODORE PERRY'S VICTORY ON LAKE ERIE. 663 

Trafalgar, and afterwards losing an arm in another engagement 
with the French. In the present battle, he was twice carried 
below on account of his wounds, and had the misfortune to have 
his remaining hand shot away. While below the second time, 
his oflBcers came down and told him that they must strike, as the 
ships were cut to pieces, and the men could not be kept to their 
guns. Commodore Barclay was then carried on deck, and after 
taking a view of their situation, and finding all chance of suc- 
cess was over, reluctantly gave orders to strike. 

In the course of the action. Perry noticed a prime and favour- 
ite sailor, who was captain of one of the guns, very much 
embarrassed with his piece, which, in consequence of the firelock 
being broken, was rather unmanageable, and rebounded. Perry 
approached him, and in an encouraging manner asked him, 
" What is the matter ?" The honest tar, who had been showing 
signs of infinite vexation, turned round, and, as if speaking of 
a mistress, exclaimed reproachfully, " Sir, my gun behaves 
shamefully !" He then levelled, and having taken aim, raised 
up and squared himself, when suddenly a cannon ball struck 
him in the breast, passed through him, and he fell dead without 
a groan ! 

Lieutenant Yarnall, of the Lawrence, behaved throughout 
with great bravery and coolness. He was dressed as a common 
seaman, a red bandanna handkerchief was tied round his neck, 
and another round his head, to staunch two wounds which he 
had received. From these, the blood trickled down his face, 
and a splinter having passed through his nose, it had swelled to 
a hideous magnitude. In this frightful plight, looking like the 
very genius of carnage and ill luck, he came up to Perry, in the 
hottest and bloodiest of the fight, and announced to him that all 
the officers of his division were killed. Perry ordered others 
in their place. Shortly after, Yarnall returned with a repeti- 
tion of the dismal tidings that all the officers were shot down ! 
" Then, sir," said Perry, "you must endeavour to make out by 
yourself; I have no more to furnish you with." 

Soon after the victory on Lake Erie, the president of the 
United States appointed Oliver H. Perry to the rank of captain 
in the navy. 

The commodore was presented with the freedom of the cities 
of New York and Albany. 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




HABRISON CSOSSINO LAKE EBIE. 



The thanks of congress were voted to the commodore, his 
officers, seamen, and marines ; and medals were presented to 
him and his officers. 

The thanks of the senate of Pennsylvania, with medals also, 
were voted to the commodore, and those hrave men who served 
under him. 

Rejoicings, illuminations, and bonfires were exhibited through 
all parts of the United States. 

On receiving intelligence of Perry's success, General Harri- 
son, who had been reinforced by a strong body of Kentucky 
militia under Governor Shelby, embarked on the lake, and soon 
arrived at Maiden. This post had been abandoned by the 
British, who had ascended the river Thames as far as the Mo- 
ravian villages. Here they were overtaken by General Harri- 
son, on the 5th of October, who succeeded in bringing them to 
action, and gained a complete victory. General Proctor saved 
himself by flight, leaving his camp equipage and papers. Six 
hundred of the British were made prisoners. The Indians are 
said to have borne the brunt of the battle and fallen in great 
numbers. Their great chief, Tecumseh, was among the slain in 
the battle of the Thames, having been shot by Colonel Johnson. 
This victory restored to the Americans all the posts which had 
been surrendered by General Hull. 



BATTLE BETWEEN THE HORNET AND PEACOCK. 



665 




CAPTAIN LAWRENCE. 



BATTLE BETWEEN THE HORNET AND 
PEACOCK. 




HE following account of this cele- 
brated action is extracted from 
Captain Lawrence's official de- 
spatch to the secretary of the 
navy, dated March 19, 1813 : 

After cruising off the coast of 
Surinam, from the 5th to the 22d 
of February, without meeting 
a vessel, I stood for Demarara, with an intention, should I not 
be fortunate on that station, to run through the West Indies, 
on my way to the United States. But, on the morning of the 
24th, I discovered a brig to leeward, to which I gave chase ; 

84 3f 2 



666 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

ran into quarter less four, and, not having a pilot, was obliged 
to haul off — the fort at the entrance of Demarara river at this 
time bearing south-west, distance about two and a half leagues. 
Previously to giving up the chase, I discovered a vessel at 
anchor without the bar, with English colours flying, apparently 
a brig-of-war. In beating round Corobano bank, in order to 
get at her, at half-past three, P. M., I discovered another sail on 
my weather quarter, edging down for us. At twenty minutes 
past four she hoisted English colours, at which time we discovered 
her to be a large man-of-war brig, beat to quarters, and cleared 
ship for action ; kept close by the wind, in order, if possible, 
to get the weather-gage. At ten minutes past five, finding I 
could weather the enemy, I hoisted American colours and 
tacked. At twenty minutes past five, in passing each other, 
exchanged broadsides within half pistol-shot. 

Observing the enemy in the act of wearing, I bore up, re- 
ceived his starboard broadside, ran him close on board on the 
starboard quarter, and kept up such a heavy and well-directed 
fire, that in less than fifteen minutes he surrendered, being lite- 
rally cut to pieces, and hoisted an ensign, union down, from his 
fore rigging, as a signal of distress. Shortly after, his main- 
mast went by the board, despatched Lieutenant Shubrick on 
board, who soon returned with her first lieutenant, who re- 
ported her to his Britannic majesty's late brig Peacock, com- 
manded by Captain William Peake, who fell in the latter part 
of the action ; that a number of her crew were killed and 
wounded, and that she was sinking fast, having then six feet 
of water in her hold ; despatched the boats immediately for the 
wounded, and brought both vessels to anchor. Such shot-holes 
as could be got at were then plugged, her guns thrown over- 
board, and every possible exertion used to keep her afloat, until 
the prisoners could be removed by pumping and bailing, but 
without effect, and she unfortunately sunk in five and a half 
fathoms water, carrying down thirteen of her crew and three 
of my brave fellows, viz. : John Hart, Joseph Williams, and 
Hannibal Boyd. Lieutenant Conner, Midshipman Cooper, and 
the remainder of the Hornet's crew, employed in removing the 
prisoners, with difficulty saved themselves by jumping in a boat 
that was lying on her bows as she went down. Four men of 
the thirteen mentioned were so fortunate as to gain the foretop, 



BATTLE BETWEEN THE HORNET AND PEACOCK. 669 

and were afterwards taken off by the boats. Previous to her 
going down, four of her men took to her stern boat, which had 
been much damaged during the action, which I hope reached 
the shore in safety ; but, from the heavy sea running at the 
time, the shattered state of the boat, and the diflSculty of land- 
ing on the coast, I much fear they were lost. I have not been 
able to ascertain from her officers the exact number killed. 
Captain Peake and four men were found dead on board. The 
master, one midshipman, carpenter, and captain's clerk, and 
twenty-nine seamen were wounded, most of them very severely, 
three of whom died of their wounds after being removed, and 
nine drowned. Our loss was trifling in comparison. John 
Place, killed ; Samuel Coulsan and Joseph Dalrymple, slightly 
wounded; George Coffin and Lewis Todd, severely burnt by 
the explosion of a cartridge. Todd survived only a few days. 
Our rigging and sails were much cut; one shot through the 
fore-mast, and the bowsprit slightly injured. Our hull received 
little or no damage. At the time the Peacock was brought to 
action, the L'Espeigle, (the brig mentioned above as being 
at anchor,) mounting sixteen two-and-thirty-pound carronades 
and two long nines, lay about six miles in shore, and could 
plainly see the whole of the action. Apprehensive that she 
would beat out to the assistance of her consort, such exertions 
were made by my officers and crew in repairing damages, &c., 
that by nine o'clock the boats were stowed, a new set of sails 
bent, and the ship completely ready for action. At two, A. m., 
got under way, and stood by the wind to the northward and 
westward under easy sail. 

On mustering next morning, found that we had two hundred 
and seventy-seven souls on board, including the crew of the 
American brig Hunter, of Portland, taken a few days before 
by the Peacock ; and, as we had been on two-thirds' allowance 
of provisions for some time, and had but three thousand 
four hundred gallons of water on board, I reduced the allow- 
ance to three pints a man, and determined to make the best of 
my way to the United States. 

The Peacock was deservedly styled one of the finest vessels 
of her class in the British navy, probably about the tonnage of 
the Hornet. Her beam was greater by five inches, but her 
extreme length not so great by four feet. She mounted six- 



670 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY, 



teen twenty-four pound carronades, two long nines, one twelve- 
pound carronade on her top-gallant-forecastle, as a shifting gun, 
and one four or six pounder, and two swivels mounted aft. I 
find by her quarter bill that her crew consisted of one hundred 
and thirty-four men, four of whom were absent in a prize. 

The cool and determined conduct of my officers and crew 
during the action, and their almost unexampled exertions after- 
wards, entitle them to my warmest acknowledgments, and I 
beg leave most earnestly to recommend them to the notice of 
the government. 




THE ENTERPRISE AND THE BOXER. 



671 




BATTLE BETWEEN THE ENTERPRISE AND 
THE BOXER. 




N the 1st of September, the 
Enterprise, Captain Burroughs, 
sailed from Portsmouth on a 
cruise. On the 5th, early in 
the morning, they espied a brig 
in shore, getting under way. 
They reconnoitred her for a 
while to ascertain her character, 
of which they were soon in- 
formed by her hoisting three 
British ensigns, and firing a 
shot as a challenge. The En- 
terprise then hauled upon a wind, stood out of the bay, and pre- 
pared for action. A calm for some time delayed the encounter ; 
it was succeeded by a breeze from the south-west, which gave 
our vessel the weather-gage. After manoeuvring for a while to 



672 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




ENTERPEISE AND BOXER, 



the windward, in order to try her sailing with the enemy, and to 
ascertain his force, the Enterprise, about three, p. m., shortened 
sail, hoisted three ensigns, fired a gun, tacked, and ran down 
with an intention to bring him to close quarters. When within 
half pistol-shot, the enemy gave three cheers, and commenced 
the action with his starboard broadside. The cheers and the 
broadside were returned on our part, and the action became 
o;eneral. In about five minutes after the battle had commenced, 
the gallant Burrows received a musket-ball in his body and fell ; 
he, however, refused to be carried below, but continued on deck 
through the action. The active command was then taken by 
Lieutenant McCall, who conducted himself with great skill and 
coolness. The enemy was out-manoeuvred and cut up ; his 
maintopmast and topsail-yard shot away ; a position gained on 
his starboard bow, and a raking fire kept up, until his guns 
were silenced and he cried for quarters, saying, that as his 
colours were nailed to the mast he could not haul them down. 
The prize proved to be his Britannic majesty's brig Boxer, of 
fourteen guns. The number of her crew is a matter of con- 
jecture and dispute. Sixty-four prisoners were taken, seventeen 
of whom were wounded. How many of the dead were thrown 
into the sea during the action it is impossible to say; the British 
return only four as killed ; courtesy forbids us to question the 
veracity of an officer on mere presumption ; but it is ever the 



THE ENTERPRISE AND THE BOXER. 673 

natural wish of the vanquished to depreciate their force ; and, 
in truth, we have seen with regret various instances of disinge- 
nuousness on the part of the enemy, in the statements of our 
naval encounters. But we will not enter into disputes of this 
kind. It is enough that the enemy entered into the battle with 
a bravado at the mast-head, and a confidence of success ; this 
either implied a consciousness of his own force, or a low opinion 
of his antagonist ; in either case he was mistaken. It is a fruit- 
less task to vindicate victories against the excuses of the van- 
quished ; sufficient for the victor is the joy of his triumph ; he 
should allow the enemy the consolation of accounting for it. 

We turn gladly from such an idle discussion to notice the last 
moments of the worthy Burrows. There needs no elaborate 
pencil to impart pathos and grandeur to the death of a brave 
man. The simple anecdotes, given in simple terms by his sur- 
viving comrades, present more striking pictures than could be 
wrought up by the most refined attempts of art. " At twenty 
minutes past three, p. m.," says one account, " our brave com- 
mander fell, and while lying on the deck, refusing to be carried 
below, raised his head and requested that the flag might never 
be struck." In this situation he remained during the rest of 
the engagement, regardless of bodily pain ; regardless of the 
life-blood fast ebbing from his wound ; watching with anxious 
eye the vicissitudes of battle ; cheering his men by his voice, but 
animating them still more by his glorious example. When the 
sword of the vanquished enemy was presented to him, we are 
told that he clasped his hands and exclaimed, " I am satisfied, 
I die contented." He now permitted himself to be carried be- 
low, and the necessary attentions were paid to save his life, or 
alleviate his suiFerings. His wound, however, was beyond the 
power of surgery, and he breathed his last within a few hours 
after the victory. 

The commander of the Boxer, Captain Samuel Blythe, was 
killed early in the action, by a cannon-ball : had he lived, he 
might have defended his ship more desperately, but it is not 
probable with more success. He was an officer of distinguished 
merit ; having received a sword from government for his good 
conduct under Sir James L. Yeo, in the capture of Cayenne. 
He was also one of the pall-bearers of our lamented La^wTence, 
when buried at Halifax. It was his fate now to receive like 
85 3 G 



674 



INCIDENTS OP MODERN HISTORY. 



courtesy at the hands of his enemy. His remains, in company 
with those of the brave Burrows, were brought to Portland, 
where they were interred with military honours. It was a 
striking and affecting sight, to behold two gallant commanders, 
who had lately been arrayed in deadly hostility against each 
other, descending into one quiet grave, there to mingle their 
dust peacefully together. 




NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. 675 




OPERATIONS ON THE NORTHERN FRONTIER 

IN 1814. 

ARLY in the spring of 1813 an offer was 
made by the emperor of Russia of his 
mediation, as the common friend of the 
United States and Great Britain, for the 
purpose of facilitating a peace between 
them. The president, having accepted 
this offer, commissioned John Quincy 
Adams, then minister of the United States at St. Petersburg, 
Albert Gallatin, and James A. Bayard, with the requisite pow- 
ers to conclude a treaty of peace with persons clothed with 
similar powers on the part of Great Britain. 

During the session of congress, which commenced in Decem- 
ber, 1813, a communication was received from the British go- 
vernment, declining to treat under the mediation of Russia, 
and proposing a direct negotiation in London or Gottenburg. 
This proposition was accepted, and the latter place appointed 
for the meeting, which was afterwards transferred to Ghent ; 
and Henry Clay and Jonathan Russell were added to the com- 
missioners who had already gone to Europe. 

For the purpose of increasing the force of the regular army, 
several acts of congress were passed, offering large bounties to 
recruits, and providing liberally for the pay, rations, and 
clothing of the troops. A loan of twenty-five millions of dol- 
lars, and the issue of treasury notes for five millions, were also 
authorized. Provision was also made for the increase tind bet- 
ter organization of the navy, and for the defence o- the sea- 
board. An embargo, which had been laid to pre^-ent the trade 
under British licenses, was repealed in April, J814. 

The fall of Napoleon, having left O^'eat Britain at peace 
with all nations, except the United States, enabled that power 



67.6 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

to direct the whole of her disposable force against the Ameri 
cans. This circumstance, increasing the perils of the campaign, 
rendered it necessary to make greater exertions and sacrifices 
for the defence of the country. 

The spring passed away without any important operations oi. 
either side. The army, which had wintered at French Mills, 
left that station in the early part of the spring, one division, 
under General Wilkinson, proceeding to Plattsburg, and the re- 
mainder, under General Brown, returning to Sackett's Harbour. 
In March, General Wilkinson entered Canada, and made an 
attack on a party of the British stationed in a large stone build- 
ing called La Cole Mill. He was defeated with a heavy loss, 
and, being soon afterwards superseded, his command was given 
to General Izard. 

On the 5th of May, the British made a descent on Oswego, 
and succeeded in capturing and destroying the fort and mili- 
tary stores at that pla*ce ; after which they returned to King- 
ston. 

Early in July, General Brown crossed the Niagara river and 
invested Fort Erie, which was surrendered without opposition, 
and the prisoners, one hundred and thirty-seven in number, 
were sent to Buffalo. The army then advanced to Chippewa, 
where a large body of the British were posted ; and, on the 5th 
of July, a severe engagement took place, in which the British 
lost upwards of three hundred killed and wounded, two hun- 
dred being left dead on the field. The American loss was sixty 
killed, and two hundred and sixty-eight wounded and missing. 
The British then retired to Fort George, and General Brown 
took post at Queenstown, to await reinforcements from Sackett's 
Harbour. 

The expected reinforcements, however, being blockaded by a 
British fleet off the harbour, did not arrive. Detachments from 
the army were occupied with unimportant skirmishes until July 
25th, when the battle of Bridgewater, near the cataract of 
Niagara, took place. 

The British advanced to the attack under General Drummond. 
The first brig,ade, under General Scott, with Towson's artillery 
and a body of cavalry, composed the advance of the Americans, 
and, engaging the en^mj at six o'clock in the evening, sus- 
tained the attack without support for an hour. General Rip- 



\. 



\ 



BATTLE OF BRIDGEWATER. 



677 




BATTLE OP LUNDJ S lANE. 



ley, with fresh troops, then arriving, relieved General Scott, 
and his exhausted brigade formed a reserve on the rear. The 
British artillery had taken post on an eminence at the head of 
Lundy's Lane, and poured a most deadly fire on the Americans. 
It became necessary to dislodge them or retreat. " Will you 
advance and capture that battery?" said the commanding 
general to Colonel Miller. " I -will try, sir," was the modest 
reply of the colonel, which afterwards became the motto of his 
regiment. He advanced coolly and steadily to his object, amidst 
a tremendous fire of artillery, and at the point of the bayonet 
carried the artillery and the height. The guns were turned 
upon the enemy. Several attempts were made to regain them 
without success. The principal force of both parties were di- 
rected to this point, and a most sanguinary contest took place, 
which resulted in the defeat of the British. The loss on each 
side was about eight hundred. Generals Brown and Scott 
being both severely wounded in the battle, the command de- 
volved upon General Ripley, who took post at Fort Erie. Gene- 
ral Gaines having arrived soon after, and taken the command, 
was attacked by General Drummond, at the head of five 
thousand troops, who formally invested the place on the 4th of 

3o2 



678 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY, 




COLONEL HILLEB. 



August. Having advanced their lines to within four hundred 
yards of the fort, the enemy commenced a brisk cannonade on 
the 13th, which continued the whole of that and the next day. 
The fire was steadily returned by the Americans. On the night 
of the 14th, an assault was made by the British, which resulted 
in their repulse, with the loss of nine hundred men — the Ame- 
ricans losing but eighty-four. 

On the 2d of September, General Brown had so far recovered 
from his wounds as to be able to resume the command. The 
British main body, under General Drummond, was encamped 
two miles from Fort Erie, while his works were advanced to 
within four hundred yards of the American lines. One of his 
brigades, with a detachment of artillery, was stationed at this 
advance. On the 17th, Generals Porter, Miller, and Brown, 



DEFENCE OF FORT ERIE. 



679 




DEFENCE or FORT EEIE. 



with large detachments, made a sortie, with a view to cut off 
the British advanced posts from the main body. Within thirty 
minutes the whole line of the enemy's intrenchments were in 
possession of the Americans. The works were destroyed, and, 
strong reinforcements of the enemy coming up, the Americans 
retired within their lines. The American loss was seventy- 
nine killed and four hundred and thirty-two wounded and miss- 
ing. The British loss, five hundred killed and wounded, and 
three hundred and eighty-five captured. The result of this 
gallant sortie completely discouraged the enemy, who, on the 
night of the 21st, raised the siege, which had continued forty- 
nine days, and retired to his intrenchments behind the Chip- 
pewa. 

On the 9th of October, General Izard arrived with reinforce- 
ments from Plattsburg and took the command. General Brown 
retiring to Sackett's Harbour. General Izard, deeming it in- 
expedient to attempt any further offensive operations in this 
quarter, demolished the works at Fort Erie, and removed the 
troops to Buffalo. 

The next attempt of the British was a descent upon Platts- 
burg. This was the principal military and naval depot for the 



680 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

army of the north and the flotilla on Lake Champlain. Its 
defence was intrusted to General Macomb, with one thousand 
five hundred regulars, and the neighbouring militia to be 
called in as occasion might require. On the 1st of September, 
General Prevost, with fourteen thousand men, advanced to 
Champlain, within fifteen miles of the American lines. Hav- 
ing called in the militia, who flocked to his standard from the 
neighbouring country in great numbers. General Macomb made 
every exertion to impede the approach and prepare for the 
attack of the enemy. The bridges on his line of march were 
broken up, and every possible impediment thrown in the way 
of his passage, and the fortifications at Plattsburg were 
strengthened by additional breastworks and batteries. 

On the 6th of September, the British advance was met at 
Batemantown, six miles from Plattsburg, by a corps of seven 
hundred militia, under General Mooers. After some slight 
skirmishing, the militia discovered the New York state dragoons 
in red uniform, reconnoitering the heights on their rear, and 
mistaking them for British troops in the act of surrounding 
their party, they broke and fled in every direction. On the 
same day, the British, commanded by Sir George Prevost in 
person, entered Plattsburg. The Americans retired to the 
south side of the Saranac river, tore up the bridges and made 
breastworks of them, and guarded the ford-ways, while the 
British strengthened their works and prepared for the attack. 

While these operations were going forward on land, the 
American squadron on Lake Champlain lay at anchor in a bay 
two miles distant, awaiting the arrival of the British fleet, which 
was to assist in the simultaneous attack about to take place on 
land and water. On the morning of the 11th, the enemy's 
ships appeared, bearing down upon the Americans under easy 
sail, and the action immediately commenced. It was a hard- 
fought battle, and it terminated in a manner highly honourable 
to the courage and resolution of Commodore McDonough and 
his brave associates. The fleets were engaged two hours and 
twenty minutes. Nearly all the British ships were sunk or 
taken ; and, when the action closed, there was not a mast stand- 
ing in either squadron to which a sail could be attached. WTien 
the flag-ship of the British, having lost its commander. Com- 
modore Downie, struck her colours, the shores resounded with 



BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMi'LAIX. 



681 




BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN. 



the acclamations of the American troops and citizens. The 
British, seeing their fleet completely conquered, were dispirited 
and dismayed. 

The American force consisted of the Saratoga, twenty-six 
guns; Eagle, twenty; Ticonderoga, seventeen; Preble, seven; 
six galleys of two guns, and four of one — in all eighty-six guns 
and eight hundred and twenty men. The British had the Con- 
fiance, thirty-nine guns ; Linnet, sixteen ; Cherub, twelve ; 
Finch, eleven ; five galleys of two guns each, and eight of one 
gun each — making in all ninety-five guns and one thousand and 
twenty men. American loss, fifty-two killed and fifty-eight 
wounded. British loss, eighty-four killed and one hundred and 
ten wounded. The old story ! The result was always about 
in the same proportion when the fighting was done on the water. 

At the moment when the naval action had commenced, the 
British, from their works on shore, had opened a heavy fire of 
shot, shells, and rockets upon the American lines. Under 
cover of this fire, three desperate efforts were made to cross 
the Saranac, for the purpose of carrying the American lines by 
assault, all which were met and successfully resisted. One 
ford, guarded by militia, was passed, and a body of the British 
being drawn into the woods, were so severely handled that they 
86 



682 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



were compelled to recross the river with considerable loss. At 
six o'clock in the evening, the British batteries were silenced ; 
and, during the night,. the whole army decamped with precipi- 
tation, leaving their sick and wounded, and most of their camp 
equipage, intrenching tools, and provisions, behind them. This 
retreat was so sudden and unexpected, that it was not discovered 
by the American general till the British were eight miles from 
the late scene of action. Indeed, he had little reason to sup- 
pose that a disciplined and well-appointed army, "Wellington's 
veterans," numbering some fourteen thousand, would have fled 
so incontinently from one thousand and five hundred American 
regulars and three thousand militia. The hard fighting on the 
lake must have had what it is the fashion to call a "moral 
efi"ect." In the phrase of Monsieur De Bourrienne, it ^^ demo- 
ralized^' them. Their commander was dismissed and disgraced 
by his government. 

This battle terminated the 
active warfare on the Canada 
border, the general result of 
which conveys to Americans 
the important lesson that the 
genius of their institutions, 
and the character of the peo- 
ple, are as uncongenial to all 
schemes of foreign conquest 
as they are favourable to the 
resolute and unflinching de- 
fence of their own soil. The 
militia who displayed so much 
bravery near their own firesides could never be brought to enter 
heartily into the scheme of invading the British territory. All 
efforts in that quarter resulted in the same " lame and impotent 
conclusion." Even the splendid achievement at Chippewa, 
Bridgewater, and Fort Erie, produced nothing in the way of 
conquest ; while the defence of Fort Sandusky and Plattsburg 
brought the solid advantages of immunity from foreign oppres- 
sion and savage warfare. 




COMMODORE MCDONOUGH. 



ATTACK ON WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE. 683 




COMMODOE£ BARNEY. 



ATTACK ON WASHINGTON AND 
BALTIMORE. 

N the 10th of August, 1814, a Bri. 
tish fleet of sixty sail, under Ad- 
miral Cochrane, with a land force 
of six thousand men, under General 
Ross, entered the Chesapeake bay, 
and proceeded to the mouth of the 
Potomac, when a squadron under 
Commodore Gordon entered that 
river, and advanced towards Alex- 
andria. The principal part of the 
fleet, with the land forces, continued 
their course to the mouth of the Patuxent, and entered that 
river on the 18th. Commodore Barney, who commanded the 
American flotilla of gun-boats on that river, to prevent their 
falling into the hands of the enemy, blew them up, and pro- 
ceeded to join General Winder. 




'684 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

The British, on their advance up the Patuxent, learning the 
defenceless state of Washington, determined on an expedition to 
that city. Five thousand men, under General Ross, having 
landed at Benedict, advanced towards the capital ; the Ame- 
ricans retiring before him. The whole force for the defence of 
the city, including militia, did not exceed seven thousand two 
hundred. They were concentrated on and near the heights of 
Bladensburg. On the 24th, the British advanced, and com- 
menced an attack, driving in the advanced parties until they 
encountered the battery of Commodore Barney, manned with 
seamen and marines, who gave them the only serious repulse 
which they met, and inflicted the heaviest loss which they suf- 
fered in the battle. Being deserted by the militia, this gallant 
little band were at length surrounded, and their commander, 
being wounded, was captured and paroled for his courage by 
General Ross. The city was then abandoned by the president 
and heads of departments ; the whole American force retreated 
to Georgetown. 

At eight o'clock in the evening, General Ross entered the 
city at the head of eight hundred men. Having arrived on 
Capitol hill, he oflered terms of capitulation, which were, that 
the city might be ransomed by paying a sum of money nearly 
equal to the value of public and private property which it con- 
tained ; and that, on receiving it, the British troops should retire 
unmolested. As there was no civil or military authority on the 
spot, competent to enter into such an arrangement as this, he 
proceeded to burn the Capitol, the president's house, the oflSces 
of the several departments, and a consideral number of private 
dwellings. The navy yard, with its contents, one frigate on the 
stocks, and several smaller vessels were also destroyed. The 
libraries and public archives, together with all the works of art 
contained in the public buildings, were included in the general 
conflagration. 

No parallel for this act of Vandalism can be found in the an 
nals of modern warfare. It was felt with the deepest resent- 
ment by the American people, and denounced in the severest 
terms even in the British parliament. The disgrace of having 
their capital taken by an enemy was suffered by the Americans 
in common with every other civilized nation ; but the lasting 



ATTACK ON WASHINGTON AND BALTIMORE, 685 

stigma of burning national archives and senate chambers remains 
with the British alone. 

Having accomplished their object, the enemy, on the 25th, 
made a precipitate retreat, and on the 30th embarked at Bene- 
dict. 

The squadron under Commodore Gordon, which had advanced 
up the river Potomac, arrived at Alexandria on the 29th ; and 
the commander having granted terms of capitulation to the citi- 
zens, by which the shipping, naval stores, and merchandise 
were delivered up, received the surrender of the place. A 
scene of indiscriminate plunder then ensued. The vessels in 
the harbour were taken and loaded with the large stores of 
flour, tobacco, cotton, wines, and sugars, of which Alexandria 
was the depot, and the whole was carried off with the squadron, 
on its return down the river. The public and private buildings 
of the town were mercifully spared. 

The success of General Ross at Washington induced him to 
undertake the capture of Baltimore. He boasted that he would 
make that city his winter-quarters, and with the force which he 
commanded he could march where he pleased in Maryland. 

The Americans were not unprepared for an attack in this 
quarter. A force of militia from Maryland and the neigh- 
bouring states, together with the regular troops who had re- 
cently been engaged at Washington, amounting in all to fifteen 
thousand men, had been assembled for the defence of the city. 
The command of these troops was given to General Smith, of 
the Maryland militia, assisted by General Winder. 

On the 11th of September, a British squadron of fifty sail, 
with six thousand men, entered the mouth of the Patapsco, and 
on the morning of the 12th commenced landing at North Point, 
fourteen miles below the city. General Strieker was detached 
with three thousand five hundred militia to oppose their advance. 
General Ross, having preceded the main body of his army with 
a small reconnoitering party, was shot through the breast by a 
rifleman, fell into the arms of his aid-de-camp, and died in a 
few minutes. The command devolved on Colonel Brook, who 
led on the attack, which was commenced by a discharge of 
rockets from the British, and was succeeded by grape,canister, 
and small arms on both sides. After maintaining his position 
for an hour and a half against a great superiority of numbers, 

3H 



686 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



General Strieker was at length obliged to retire to Worthington 
Mills, half a mile in advance of the main body. 

On the night of the 12th, the British bivouacked in advance 
of the battle ground, and on the 13th commenced their march 
towards the city. When within two miles of the American 
lines they halted to await the result of the attack on Fort 
McHenry. This fortress defends the narrow passage from the 
Patapsco into Baltimore harbour, two miles below the city, and 
its command had been intrusted to Major Armistead, with one 
thousand men. Fort Covington, on the right of Fort McHenry, 
was commanded by Lieutenant Newcomb. On the 12th, a Bri- 
tish squadron of sixteen ships drew up in line of battle within 
two miles and a half of the forts, and at sunrise on the 13th, 
commenced an attack on them with bombs and rockets. Twelve 
hundred men were detached to storm the works on the suc- 
ceeding night, and the battle raged with great fury till the 
morning of the 14th, when the assailants, being completely 
foiled, were compelled to retire, and the squadron sailed down 
the river. Their example was speedily followed by the army, 
who had sanguinely anticipated the capture and plunder of Bal- 
timore» 




BOMBARSHIKT OF POBT U^HEIfBT. 



CRUISE OF THE ESSEX. 



687 




COMMODORE POSTEE. 



CRUISE OF THE ESSEX. 



MONG those by whom the 
enterprise of the American 
navy was chiefly evinced, 
^ was Captain Porter, whose 
3 cruise on the Pacific termi- 
nated about this time. As 
early as the month of Oc- 
tober, 1812, he sailed from 
the Delaware in the frigate 
Essex. He doubled Cape 
Horn, amidst tremendous 
storms, about the middle of February, 1813, and on the 15th of 
March put into the port of Valparaiso, and, having obtained the 
necessary supplies, proceeded on his cruise, along the coast of 
Chili, and thence to the Gailipagos islands. In the vicinity of 




688 



INCIDENT?! OF MODERN HISTORY. 




COMMODORE PORTER'S CRUISE IN THE PACIFIC. 



these isles the Essex cruised for upwards of six months, during 
which she totally destroyed that valuable part of the enemy's 
commerce which was carried on in those seas. The whole of 
the British vessels at that time in the Pacific, to the number of 
twelve, carrying in all one hundred and seven guns, and three 
hundred and two men, were captured. Their value was estimated 
at two and a half millions of dollars. He converted one of them 
into a vessel of war, mounting twenty guns, which he named the 
Essex Junior ; and sailed for Valparaiso. 

The intelligence of Captain Porter's exploits had at length 
occasioned a force of the enemy to be sent in pursuit of him. 
Soon after his arrival at Valparaiso, the Phoebe, a British frigate 
of thirty-eight guns, and a sloop of war, appeared ofi" the port, 
having been fitted out expressly to meet the Essex. They en- 
tered the harbour to obtain provisions, and, having eff"ected this, 
again stood out and cruised off the port for about six weeks. 
Their united force was much greater than that of Captain Por- 
ter, the Essex Junior being of but little utility in action. At 
length, on the 28th March, the Essex made an attempt to get 
to sea, with a favourable wind. The enemy's vessels were close 
to the shore, and Captain Porter expected to be able to pass to 
windward of them. Unfortunately, however, in rounding the 
point, the American vessel was struck by a squall, which carried 
away her main-topmast. Thus crippled, escape to sea was im- 



CRUISE OF THE ESSEX. 689 

possible ; and as it was equally difficult to reach the harbour, 
Captain Porter ran into a small bay, and anchored within pistol- 
shot of the shore. In this situation it was to have been expected 
that the ordinary rules of warfare, which forbid an attack upon 
an enemy lying within a neutral territory, would have been ob- 
served. It was, nevertheless, soon perceived that Captain Hill- 
yar, the English commander, was determined to avail himself 
of the opportunity offered, without regard to the rights of sove- 
reignty of the local government. The Essex was prepared for 
action with all possible despatch ; but before a spring could be 
put upon her cable to enable her to bring her broadside to bear, 
the attack was commenced. The British commander, desirous 
of capturing the Essex with as little loss to himself as possible, 
placed his frigate, the Phoebe, under her stern, while the Cherub 
took a position on her bows. The latter, soon finding the fire 
of the Essex too warm, bore up, and ran also under her stern, 
where both ships kept up a heavy and raking fire. Captain 
Porter continued the action for a considerable time, with three 
long twelve-pounders, being all the guns which he found it possible 
to bring to bear on the enemy, when, finding his crew falling 
fast around him, he cut his cable, and ran down on the enemy, 
with the intention of laying the Phoebe on board. For a short 
time a close and sanguinary action ensued; but the superior 
equipment of the British frigate enabling her to choose her 
distance, she edged off, and continued so heavy a fire from her 
long guns, that Captain Porter determined to run his ship 
ashore. He was, however, disappointed in this hope by the 
wind setting off the land ; and after an unequal and hopeless 
contest of three hours, was compelled to give the painful order 
to strike the colours. 

The loss of the Essex in this engagement was fifty-eight 
killed, sixty-six wounded, and thirty-one missing, most of the 
latter escaping to the shore by swimming ; that of the British 
was said to be only five killed and ten wounded. Both of the 
enemy's vessels, as well as the Essex, were so much crippled, 
that it was with difficulty they were enabled to reach the port of 
Valparaiso. Captain Porter and his crew were paroled and per- 
mitted to return to the United States in the Essex Junior, her 
armament being previously taken out. On arriving off the 
port of New York, they were overhauled and detained by th« 
87 3 H 2 



690 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



Saturn razee. Being thus treated, Captain Porter told the 
boarding-officer that he gave up his parole, and considered him- 
self a prisoner of war, and as such should use all means of 
escape. In consequence of this threat, the Essex Junior was 
ordered to remain all night under the lee of the Saturn ; but 
the next morning Captain Porter put oiF in his boat, though 
thirty miles from shore ; and, notwithstanding he was pursued 
by the Saturn, effected his escape and landed safely on Long 
Island. His reception in the United States was such as his 
great services and distinguished valour deserved. 




CAPTURE OF THE EPERVIER AND REINDEER. 



691 




CAPTAIlf WiKRINQTOir. 



CAPTURE OF THE EPERVIER AND 
REINDEER. 



^«, N the 29tli of April, the sloop-of- 
war Peacock, of eighteen guns, 
commanded by Captain Warring- 
ton, fell in with, and after an ac- 
tion of forty-two minutes, cap- 
tured the British brig-of-war Eper- 
vier, of a like number of guns, 
and one hundred and twenty- 
eight men, of whom eight were 
killed and fifteen wounded. The 
Peacock was deprived of the use of her foresail and fore-top- 
sail in the early part of the action ; but received no other in- 
jury, two men only being slightly wounded. The prize had on 
board one hundred and twenty thousand dollars in specie, which 




^d2 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




CAPTAIN BLAKELT. 



was transferred to the Peacock, 
safety in the United States. 



and both vessels arrived in 



About this period the sloop-of-war Wasp, of eighteen guns, 
commanded by Captain Blakely, sailed from Portsmouth, on her 
first cruise. After capturing seven merchantmen, she encoun- 
tered, on the 28th of June, the British brig-of-war Reindeer, of 
nineteen guns and one hundred and eighteen men. After a 
series of manoeuvres on the part of the latter, by -which a close 
action was for a long time prevented, a warm engagement com- 
menced, which was continued with great spirit on both sides for 
upwards of two hours, during which the enemy several times 
attempted to board, but were as often repulsed. The crew of 
the Wasp now boarded with great ardour, and in a few minutes 
resistance ceased and the British flag was hauled down. Owing 
to the proximity of the two vessels and the smoothness of the 
sea, the loss on both sides was severe. That of the Americans 
was five killed and twenty-one wounded ; while the British lost 



CAPTURE OF THE EPERVIER AND REINDEER. 



695 



twenty-five killed, including Captain Manners, and forty-two 
wounded. The Reindeer was so much injured that it was found 
necessary to set her on fire. 

Captain Blakely, continuing his cruise, about the 1st of Sep- 
tember discovered a fleet of merchantmen under convoy of a 
seventy-four gun ship. One of them was taken, and after re- 
moving her cargo, was set on fire. On the same evening he 
fell in with and captured the British sloop-of-war Avon, of 
twenty guns. The appearance of a British squadron compelled 
him to abandon his prize, which sunk soon after the removal of 
her crew. 

The damage sustained in this action being soon repaired, 
Captain Blakely continued his cruise, and on the 23d of Sep- 
tember, captured the British brig Atalanta, which he sent into 
the United States. From this period no tidings ever reached 
the republic of this gallant ship. Whether she foundered in 
darkness and tempest, or perished in a conflict with an enemy, 
has never been ascertained. 




696 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




OENEEAI JACKSON. 



EXPEDITION OF THE BRITISH AGAINST NEW 
ORLEANS.— RETURN OF PEACE. 



HE British had for some time been preparing 
for an expedition against New Orleans. The 
fleet lately employed in the Chesapeake, and 
the whole British force which could be spared 
from the Atlantic coast, had been assembled 
at Jamaica and at Bermuda, to prepare for 
this grand attempt. Large reinforcements 
had been ordered from England, under Gene- 
nvl Packenham, furnished not only with the means of war, but 
with printing presses, and custom-house and civil officers, and 




EXPEDITION AGAINST NEW ORLEANS. 697 

every thing incident to a permanent establishment. Indeed, so 
certain were the enemy of accomplishing their object, that there 
were merchants on board the fleet who went out for the purpose 
of buying the cotton which was to compose a part of the coveted 
plunder. 

On the 20th of October, this formidable armament, con- 
sisting of sixty vessels, with eight thousand troops, sailed from 
the West Indies, and on the 18th of November arrived at the 
entrance of Lake Borgne. On the 2d of December, General 
Jackson, with the regular troops from the Mobile and Missis- 
sippi territory, arrived at New Orleans, and immediately com- 
menced a system of eflicient measures for its defence. The 
militia of Louisiana and Mississippi were ordered out en masse, 
and large detachments from Tennessee and Kentucky. From 
Governor Claiborne, of Louisiana, General Jackson had pre- 
viously learnt that the city corps had for the most part refused 
to turn out on the requisition of General Flournoy, that the 
legislature of the state, then in session, had encouraged them in 
their disobedience, and that among the citizens there were many 
disaffected to the government of the United States, and friendly 
to the British. 

Finding on his arrival in the city that this information was 
correct, and that the most imminent danger was threatened by 
the presence and influence of the disaffected. General Jackson, 
after consulting with the governor and other leading citizens, 
on the 16th of December issued an order, declaring the city 
and environs of New Orleans to be under strict martial law. 
The rigid police which this measure enabled him to exert, sooa 
freed the city from the spies and traitors with which it had 
abounded ; and the citizens addressed themselves earnestly to 
the business of preparing for the vigorous defence of the city. 
The fortifications were strengthened, and every man who could 
bear arms was required to take a part in the military operations 
on which the safety of all depended. 

Fort St. Philip, which guarded the passage of the river at 
Detour la Plaquemine, was strengthened and placed under the 
command of Major Overton. An extensive line of works was 
erected four miles below the city, on the east bank of the Mis- 
sissippi, the right resting on the river, and the left reaching to 
an impenetrable cypress swamp. A ditch which had been dug 



698 INCIDENTS OF MODEBN HISTORY. 

for agricultural objects, between the river and the swamp, waa 
now made use of for an important military purpose. On its 
northern bank intrencbments were thrown up, and large quan- 
tities of cotton bales were so arranged as to protect the troops 
effectually from the enemy's fire. These works were well 
mounted with artillery. Opposite this position, on the west 
bank of the river. General Morgan, with a body of militia, was 
stationed, and near him Commodore Patterson, with the crewa 
and guns of part of his squadron ; enfilading the approach of 
the enemy against the principal works. A detachment wag 
stationed above the town, to guard the pass of the Bayou St. 
John. These dispositions having been made for the defence of 
the city, the approach of the enemy was firmly awaited. 

To clear the way for the transportation of their troops by 
boats, the British first sent forward forty launches filled with 
men, who attacked, and after a desperate resistance captured 
and destroyed the American flotilla stationed on lakes Borgne 
and Pontchartrain, consisting of five gun-boats and a small sloop 
and schooner. Having thus obtained possession of the lakes, 
on the 22d of December a detachment was sent from their ren- 
dezvous, at Ship Island, to the Bayou Bienvenue, and having 
effected a landing unobserved, were marching towards the city. 
General Jackson, having been apprized of their approach, 
marched out and attacked them on the night of the 23d. In 
this action the British lost five hundred in killed, wounded, and 
missing. They retreated, and intrenched themselves at Bien- 
venue, four miles from the American camp. The armed 
schooners Caroline and Louisiana dropped down the river from 
the city, and opened a fire on the British lines. On the 27th, 
the Caroline got aground, and was set on fire and destroyed 
by the hot shot of the enemy. The Louisiana succeeded in 
getting out of the reach of their batteries. 

On the 28th, the British advanced within half a mile of the 
American lines, and opened a fire of shells and rockets, but 
were repulsed by the artillery. On the night of the 31st, they 
came within six hundred yards of the works, erected three bat- 
teries, and opened a heavy fire. Under cover of these batteries 
they attempted three times to storm the works, but were re- 
pulsed, and their batteries being silenced, they returned to their 
former position. 



EXPEDITION AGAINST NEW ORLEANS. 



699 




BATTLE OF NEW ORLEANS. 



The final assault was reserved for the 8th of January. To 
insure its success, it was deemed necessary to order a simulta- 
neous attack to be made on the main works, and on the position 
of General Morgan and Commodore Patterson, west of the 
river. Colonel Thornton was detached for the latter service, 
with five hundred men, and soon effected a landing. Colonel 
Davis, with three hundred Kentucky militia, being ordered to 
the water's edge to oppose them, was soon put to flight, and the 
Louisiana militia, under General Morgan, also fled, deserting 
their battery. Commodore Patterson's battery being thus left 
unsupported, his crews were obliged to yield to a superior force ; 
but the resistance which they were able to make detained the 
British until the contest on the other side of the river was nearly 
over. 

While these operations were going forward on the west bank 
of the river, the decisive action was fought on the opposite side. 
At daybreak, on the 8th, the main body of the British, under 
General Packenham, advanced from their encampment to storm 
tne American lines. A battery which they had erected the 
evening before, within eight hundred yards, opened a fire to 
protect their advance. They came on in two columns, the left 



700 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

column along the levee against the American right, and the right 
column advancing to the swamp, for the purpose of turning 
General Jackson's right. When they had approached within 
three hundred yards of the lines, forty pieces of artillery from 
the American works opened upon them a destructive fire of 
grape-shot and musket-balls, and mowed them down by hundreds, 
while the riflemen, taking deliberate aim, made nearly every 
shot take effect. Through this destructive fire the British left 
column rushed on with their fascines and scaling ladders, and 
carried the advanced bastion of the American right ; but being 
unsupported, and assailed by the battery planted in the rear, 
and a regiment of riflemen brought up for the purpose, they 
were driven from the ground with immense loss of lives. The 
right column of the British having attempted to pass into the 
swamp for the purpose of turning the American left, were pre- 
vented from effecting their object by the nature of the ground, 
and being exposed to the fire from the batteries, were compelled 
to retire. The assault continued an hour and a quarter, during 
which the British were exposed to the destructive fire from the 
American artillery and musketry, while the breastworks of cot- 
ton bales, which no balls could penetrate, afforded a perfect 
protection to their opponents. General Packenham was mor- 
tally wounded ; General Gibbs, the second in command, also 
received a mortal wound; and General Keane, the third in 
command, was wounded so severely as to be incapable of per- 
forming his duties of commander. 

At eight o'clock the British retreated to their works. The 
militia were anxious to pursue them, but General Jackson pru- 
dently determined not to risk the loss of the city by so rash a 
proceeding. Of the troops which the British had brought into 
the field, seven hundred were killed, fourteen hundred wounded, 
and five hundred captured, making a total loss of twenty-six 
hundred. The Americans lost six killed, and seven wounded. 
Of General Morgan's detachment on the west bank, and of a 
party sent on a sortie on the British lines, forty-nine were killed, 
and one hundred and seventy-eight wounded. 

The British kept up the appearance of renewing the attack, 
and on the ninth commenced a bombardment of Fort St. Philip, 
which was continued till the 17th, and sustained by Major Over- 
ton and his garrison with but trifling loss. This, however, was 



RETURN OF PEACE. 



701 



merely a feint to cover their final retreat, which took place on 
the 16th of January, under the direction of General Lambert. 

While the whole country was electrified with the news of this 
important victory, intelligence was received from Europe of the 
conclusion of a treaty of peace by the commissioners assembled 
at Ghent. The treaty had been signed on the 24tli of Decem- 
ber, and ratified by the prince-regent of England on the 27th. 
It was received in the United States on the 11th, and ratified 
on the 17th of February by the president and senate. The 
pacification of Europe, in 1814, had removed all the real grounds 
of war between Great Britain and the United States, by render- 
ing the interruption of American commerce and the impressment 
of seamen unnecessary for promoting the objects of the British 
government. The conquests on both sides were restored ; and 
provision was made for settling the boundaries between the 
United States and Canada, which, till 1842, continued a subject 
of negotiation. 

A treaty to regulate the commerce between the two coun- 
tries was signed at London on the 3d of July, and ratified by 
the president on the 22d of December. 




3i2 



702 



INCIDENTS OP MODERN HISTORY. 




BATHE OP WATEELOO. 



NAPOLEON'S HUNDRED DAYS' REIGN- 
BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 




TTER Napoleon's banishment to Elba, 
his numerous friends in France had 
recourse to every means in their power 
to foment popular dissatisfaction, and 
to excite some undefined expectation of 
the future return of their favourite ruler. 
In the beginning of the year 1815, 
he returned in reality. Escaping from 
Elba, he disembarked on the 1st of 
March, with about nine hundred men, near the small town of 
Cannes, in the gulf of Juan : thence he advanced to Gap. On 
the 5th, in his way to Grenoble, he was joined by many of the 
officers, and all the soldiery stationed there. From Grenoble 
he advanced to Lyons, where Monsieur the king's brother, and 
the duke of Orleans, had hastened to oppose his farther progress. 
Here also the troops joined him. On the 17th, he reached 
Auxerre ; he then proceeded to Fontainebleau, and on the even- 
ing of the 20th entered Paris without opposition. Louis had left 
his capital at one in the morning of that day, and, after vainly 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 703 

attempting to secure himself in Lille, fled first to Ostend, and 
afterwards to Ghent. The whole of the army, with the excep- 
tion of a few of the oflScers, and almost the whole of the civil 
authorities, readily acknowledged the cause of Napoleon, thus 
once more seated on his abdicated throne by the most rapid 
transition known in history. 

One of the first acts of the restored emperor of France was 
to attempt to induce the allied powers to acquiesce in his resto- 
ration, as being, he said, the unanimous act of the French 
people, and to abide in all other respects by the treaty of Paris 
of the preceding year. But all those powers agreed unanimously 
that they would have neither peace nor truce with him. It was 
become evident, therefore, that there must be another appeal to 
the sword. Both parties made the most gigantic preparations. 
Napoleon endeavoured to gain popularity by proposing institu- 
tions of a nature favourable to liberty, and similar to those of 
Louis's constitutional charter. But he clearly saw that his real 
strength lay in his army ; and it was plain, that if victory should 
restore his authority, all the national and civil institutions would 
again bend before his will. 

In the beginning of June, a combined English and Prussian 
army was quartered in the neighbourhood of Brussels and Char- 
leroi, under the command of the duke of Wellington and mare- 
chal Blucher. Napoleon, with his characteristic decision and 
promptitude, put himself at the head of one hundred and fifty 
thousand selected troops, who had assumed the title of the army 
of the north, and on the 14th of June commenced operations on 
the Flemish frontier. On the 15th, he passed th6 Sambre, and 
took Charleroi. On the 16th, two battles were fought at Ligny 
and at Quatre Bras. In the one of these. Napoleon gained the 
advantage over Blucher ; in the other, marechal Ney had a 
severe struggle with the English, in which neither party gained 
a clear superiority. In this action at Quatre Bras, the duke of 
Brunswick was killed — the son of that duke who had commanded 
the Prussian army in the war which broke out in the beginning 
of the Revolution. Both these actions, however, are chiefly 
memorable as the precursors of the decisive battle which followed 
on the 18th, at Waterloo, and which terminated for ever Napo- 
leon's splendid career. It had long been his wish to be person- 
ally opposed to the duke of Wellington, and, when he joined the 



704 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

army of the north, he exultingly exclaimed ; " Je vais me frotter 
contre Wellington." His wish was gratified, but never perhaps 
was any defeat more bloody or more disastrous than that which 
he was destined now to sustain. He issued his orders, and 
viewed the battle from a convenient distance ; and an oflBcer 
who was standing near him aflSrmed that, " his astonishment at 
the resistance of the British was extreme : his agitation became 
violent: he took snuflf by handfuls at the repulse of each charge." 
At last he took the officer by the arm, saying, " The affair is 
over, — we have lost the day, — let us be off!" In this heartless 
manner, and thinking only of himself. Napoleon abandoned an 
army which was wholly devoted to him. He fled to Paris, where 
he arrived on the 20th. 

He again abdicated, making at the same time another ineffec- 
tual attempt to place the succession in the hands of his son. 
On the 29th, he set out for Rochefort, intending to seek refuge 
in the United States of America. In the mean time, the allied 
army advanced on Paris. On the 7th of July, the city surren- 
dered, and on the 8th, Louis XVIII. re-entered it. 

Thus closed finally that succession of revolutions which had 
distracted Europe for a period of twenty-five years. Peace was 
again restored nearly on the basis of the treaty which had been 
contracted the year before, but with some resumptions of terri- 
tory by the allies on the frontiers of the Netherlands, of Ger- 
many, and of Savoy. It was also provided, that an allied army 
of one hundred and fifty thousand men should occupy, for the 
space of three or five years, a line of fortresses from Cambray 
to Alsace, the possession of which would enable them, in any 
case of necessity, to march straight to Paris without opposition. 
This army was to be maintained wholly at the expense of France, 
and France agreed also to pay seven hundred millions of francs, 
to be divided in different proportions among the allied powers, 
as a partial indemnification for the expenses of this last contest, 
which had been brought on so unexpectedly by the return of 
Napoleon. It was also decided that the pictures and statues, 
of which Italy, the Netherlands, and other countries, had been 
despoiled, should be restored to their ancient possessors. Not 
even the occupation of their territory by foreign troops, and the 
sort of tribute which they were compelled to pay for their main- 
tenance, appear to have been so grating to the national vanity as 



BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 



705 



the being compelled to make this just restitution. The definitive 
treaty was signed at Paris, on the 20th day of November. 

Napoleon, now a hopeless fugitive, arrived at Rochefort on 
the 3d of July. He there embarked on board a small frigate for 
America ; but an English ship of superior force lying in sight, 
it was impossible, if he sailed, to escape being taken. Under 
these circumstances, he surrendered himself, on the 15th of July, 
to the English. The English captain received him and his suite 
on board, and immediately sailing for England, arrived in Tor- 
bay on the 25th. After various discussions as to the manner 
in which he should be treated, it was finally determined that 
he should be sent to the island of St. Helena ; a place which 
combined, in a remarkable degree, the provision for the safe 
custody of his person, with the least restraint possible of his 
domestic comforts and his habits of exercise. This consideration 
was fairly regarded as due to a man who had filled so high a 
station in the world, and whose return from Elba, however per- 
fidious and indefensible, had been sanctioned by the applause and 
approbation of the powerful kingdom from which he was again 
expelled. The expedition conducting him arrived at St. Helena 
on the 18th of October, 1815. A place called Longwood was 
fitted up for his reception. He there resided nearly six years, 
and died on the 5th of May, 1821. 




B L n C H E R. 



89 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 




HE events of the Greek revo- 
lution, which began in 1820, 
and of the war between the 
Greeks and Turks, which 
lasted ten years, till the end 
of 1829, are well known 
through the works of Leake, 
Stanhope, Blaquiere, and nu- 
merous others. The Greeks 
were determined to shake off 
the Turkish yoke, and they 
succeeded in clearing the Morea of their enemies and defeating 
them by sea. The Porte, unable to subdue them, called to its 
assistance the disciplined forces of the pasha of Egypt, which 
invaded the Peloponnesus, and the cause of Greek independ- 
ence had again become problematical, when the three powers, 
Great Britain, France, and Russia, resolved to put a stop to 
this war of extermination, which had been carried on for so 
many years. The victory of Navarino, gained by the allied 
fleets in October, 1827, obliged the Egyptian forces to evacuate 
the Morea. The conference of London, in March, 1829, esta- 
blished the principle of the independence of Greece as a state, 
andr the successful campaign of the same year of the Russians 
against the Turks induced the sultan to acknowledge it by an 
article of the treaty of Adrianople, in September, 1829. In 



THE GREEK REVOLUTION. 70Y 

January, 1830, the conference of London settled the total in- 
dependence of Greece from the Porte, and fixed Thermopylae 
and the Aspropotamos as the frontiers of the new state, which 
were afterwards extended in 1832 to the present boundary line, 
with the consent of the sultan. Meantime, the internal govern- 
ment of Greece had undergone many vicissitudes. During 
their arduous struggle against the Turks, the Greeks had called 
together at Troezen a congress of deputies from the various 
districts, which settled the basis of a constitution ; but the 
vicissitudes of the war prevented the government from assuming 
a fixed and orderly shape. When the independence of Greece 
was secured by the interference of the three allied powers, the 
congress appointed Count John Capodistria, a native of Corfu, 
who had been employed with distinction as a diplomatic agent 
of Russia, to be the head of the executive of the new state of 
Greece, with the title of president, for seven years, and with 
very extensive powers. Capodistria arrived in Greece in Feb- 
ruary, 1828, and he set about establishing a central system of 
bureaucracy, as in France and Russia, by which the government 
was to interfere in and regulate at pleasure all the concerns of 
society, civil, financial, commercial, municipal, and religious. 
Unfortunately for his plan, the Greeks, even under Turkish 
despotism, had been used to much individual freedom, and to 
have the direction of their own municipal, judicial, and com- 
mercial aflfairs, under the guidance of their archontes and 
clergy ; the Turks lived chiefly in the fortified towns, interfer- 
ing but little in the internal concerns of the rayahs, and em- 
ploying the archontes themselves to exact whatever they wanted 
from the people. The result of Capodistria's rash measures 
was an insurrection, which began in Maina and Hydra, and 
soon extended to most of the islands, and to the warlike popu- 
lation of Roumelia. 

On the 8th of October, 1881, Capodistria was inurdered at 
Nauplia in open day, on the threshold of the church of St. 
Spiridion, by George and Constantino Mauromicali, the rela- 
tives of Petros Mauromicali, the bey of Maina, whom the pre- . 
sident had kept for a long time in prison without bringing him 
to trial. His brother Augustin Capodistria succeeded him in 
the presidency, but the civil war continuing, he was obliged to 
resign, At last the allied powers oflfered the crown of Greece, 



708 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORr. 



which had been refused by Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, to 
the king of Bavaria for his younger son Otho, then a minor ; 
and the oiFer being accepted, Otho, accompanied by a council 
of regency, and a body of Bavarian troops, arrived at Nauplia 
in February, 1833, and was willingly acknowledged by the 
Greeks as their sovereign. In June, 1835, King Otho, being 
of age, took the direction of the affairs of state. The govern- 
ment is a constitutional hereditary monarchy, with two legisla- 
tive houses — a senate and house of representatives. In the year 
1836, King Otho made a journey to Germany, where he married 
Amelia Maria, daughter of the grand-duke of Oldenburg ; and 
in February, 1837, he returned with his bride to Greece, and 
made his entrance into Athens, the capital of the kingdom, in 
the midst of general acclamations. It is settled that the chil- 
dren of this marriage shall be brought up in the Greek commu- 
nion. Since the arrival of King Otho, Greece has been com- 
paratively quiet, bating some intrigues and dissensions between 
the Roumeliote chiefs, the Moreote primates, and the old klepht 
Colocotroni. 




FRENCH CONQUEST OF ALGIERS. 



709 




CHARLES X. 



FRENCH CONQUEST OF ALGIERS— FRENCH 
REVOLUTION OF 1830. 




N 1827, the French government had sent a fleet 
under Admiral de Rigny to the coast of the Mo- 
rea, for the purpose of joining the English in put- 
ting a stop to the barbarous warfare between the 
Greeks and the Turks. De Rigny and the Eng- 
lish admiral, Codrington, acted in concert in the battle fought 
in Navarino bay, in which the Turkish fleet was destroyed, and 
France, in like manner, subsequently became a party to the 
treaties by which Greece was finally extricated from the Turk- 
ish yoke, and made, at least ostensibly, an independent state. 

In the same year some disputes took place with Algiers, and 
a blockading squadron was despatched there to demand satis- 
faction. Some slight hostilities followed ; but these were only 
a prelude to the sending a formidable army there three years 
afterwards. 

This army, which consisted of no less than thirty-seven thou- 
sand men, sailed from Toulon on the 25th of May, 1830, It was 

3£ 



710 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

commanded by the comte de Bourmont, who had been originally 
a Vendean chief, but had tarnished his reputation by his readi- 
ness to join all parties, and had been a Bourbonist and a Bona- 
partist by turns. On June 14th, after encountering much hazy 
and baffling weather, the army was landed on the coast of 
Africa, at about fifteen miles to the west of Algiers, On the 
4th of July, as the French were preparing an assault against 
one of the forts, the dey sent a flag of truce to treat for peace, 
and the terms finally settled were that the town should be de- 
livered up to France, and that the inhabitants should retain 
their private property and personal liberty, together with the 
free exercise of their religion. The dey himself was expelled, 
and finally took up his abode at Naples. It had been originally 
announced that this expedition had been fitted out for the pur- 
pose of causing the French flag to be respected by the piratical 
Btates, and not with any view to a permanent conquest ; but no 
disposition to abandon the new colony thus acquired has yet 
been shown. 

The news of this success reached Paris on the 9th of July, 
and it was for a moment hoped that it might gain some popu- 
larity for the ministers. The public feeling was, however, by 
this time too much decided to be easily turned. On the 26th 
the king issued six ordinances, by which the liberty of the press 
was abolished ; the newly elected chamber of deputies dissolved, 
though it had not yet met ; a new mode of election appointed ; 
and several individuals very obnoxious to the people nominated 
as members of the council of state. The intelligence of this 
subversion (for it was nothing less) of the charter was first com- 
municated to the public by the appearance of the ordinances in 
the government newspaper. Even Mar^chal Marmont, w^ho'liad 
the military command, and was the person to be relied on to 
Buppress any tumult or insurrection, had not been apprized of 
what was intended. The king passed the day in hunting, and 
the ministers, although some mobs collected in Paris, and broke 
lamps and windows, and threw stones at Prince Polignac's car- 
riage, were so blind to their danger that they even congratu- 
lated each other on the tranquillity of the capital. But these 
congratulations were very premature. 

During the whole of the next day the agitation went on in- 
creasing. The military were called out, and in some places the 



FRENCH REVOLUTION OP 1830. 711 

collected multitudes were charged by the cavalry. In other 
places, after much forbearance, the streets were cleared by vol- 
leys of musketry. By these means a temporary repose was 
obtained at an early hour of the night, and the ministers again 
hoped that the contest was come to an end. Many persons 
also have thought' that if the ensuing night had been passed by 
the government in active preparation for the more serious con- 
test of the next day, the insurrection might still have beea 
suppressed. 

At an .early hour of the morning of the 28th, large bodies of 
people were everywhere in motion. At nine o'clock, the tri- 
colour flag was seen to wave from the top of the cathedral of 
Notre Dame, and at eleven from the central tower of the Hotel 
de Ville. On this morning, there also appeared in the throng 
several armed citizens arrayed in the old uniform of the national 
guard. The ministers declared the town in a state of siege, 
and Marmont, who had been disgusted at the weakness and 
precipitation which had brought affairs into this dangerous state, 
was now seriously alarmed for the result, and recommended to 
take measures of pacification. No attention was paid to this 
recommendation, and at mid-day he put the guards in motion. 
A series of contests ensued in all parts of the town, some of 
which lasted till late at night. The troops fought under the 
disadvantage of being plunged in narrow and crowded streets, 
in which, though, when they could act together, they sur- 
mounted all opposition, they were exposed to a harassing fire 
from the windows, and to the hurling down on their heads of 
stones and tiles, or any other missiles that could be found. 
Even boiling water and oil were used as instruments of warfare 
on this occasion ; and it is said that one lady and her maid 
contrived to throw down a pianoforte on the heads of the ad- 
verse party in the streets. The scene on which the contest of 
this day took the most serious appearance was the Place de 
Greve, and the north end of Pont Notre Dame. Of these stations 
the guards took possession, though under a series of incessant 
attacks. But the troops of the line, which had been appointed 
to support them, refused to act, and the guards were therefore 
at. length compelled to retire, first to the Hotel de Ville, and 
afterwards to the Tuileries. There is no doubt that Marmont 
had exposed his troops to these repulses by frittering them into 



712 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

&mall bodies ; but his heart had never been in the cause for 
which he was fighting. He was pledged by the oflBce which he 
bore to obey the orders of the government, but he saw and felt, 
at the same time, that it was going wrong. 

In the mean time, some of the deputies to the new chamber, 
which the king had dissolved, endeavoured, but in vain, to re- 
store tranquillity. They had assembled on the 27th, and had 
protested against the fatal ordinances of the day before. On 
the 28th, a body of them proceeded to the Tuileries, and had 
an audience of Marmont, who tried to persuade them to use 
their influence with the people to make them submit. They 
replied that the ordinances must be repealed, and the ministers 
changed, before any conciliation could be attempted, and that, 
if these things were not done, they must themselves take part 
against the government. Marmont wrote at five in the after- 
noon to the king, to express his opinion of the great danger of 
the crisis which had arrived, but received in return only an in- 
junction to persevere in the use of force, and to act in larger 
masses than before. 

The night of the 29th was passed by the populace in erect- 
ing barricades across the principal streets, to hinder them from 
being penetrated or scoured by the troops. On the evening of 
the 27th, they had made, in some places, a rude sort of blockade 
with carriages and omnibuses. They now broke up the pave- 
ment at intervals, and heaped it into mounds, which they aug- 
mented with planks and pieces of furniture ; and they also cut 
down and employed in the same manner the trees of the Boule- 
vards. All these preparations, however, were not brought to 
the trial. The soldiers, instructed by their experience of the 
day before, did not attempt to penetrate again into the narrow 
streets, and maintained themselves during the whole of the 
morning of the next day in their positions. The populace 
made, however, several skirmishing attacks, and some of them 
fell by the fire of the guards. 

The first approach to a decision of the contest was by the 
desertion of the regiments of the line at about noon of 
this day, the 29th. But before this was known, or during an 
interval in which the guards had been removed from their post, 
the populace made way into the garden in front of the Louvre, 
and thence, entering through the windows and glass doors^ 



FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1830. 713 

took possession of the whole interior of the edifice. The re- 
mainder of the guards were compelled to flj in disorder ; they 
rallied for a time in the Place de Carrousel, but were not sup- 
ported, and were again obliged to retire. Shortly afterwards, 
Marmont relinquished the possession of the city to the insur- 
gents. He withdrew all the troops whom his orders could 
reach, and directed them to take the road to St. Cloud, in order 
to protect the person of the king. And thus, by three in the 
afternoon, Paris was left entirely at the command of the popu- 
lace. 

The ministers now tendered their resignations ; and the king, 
seeing the necessity of the case, signed an order, by which he 
repealed the obnoxious decrees, and appointed a new ministry 
composed of men attached to popular principles. But, before 
this order could be received in Paris, the Parisians had deter- 
mined that he should not be permitted to reascend the throne. 

As soon as the retreat of Marmont and his troops was ascer- 
tained, the deputies in Paris formed and proclaimed a provi- 
sional government. The national guard was called out, and 
General La Fayette was appointed to take the command. The 
personal influence and popularity of this veteran was exceed- 
ingly great with all classes of citizens. All his orders were 
willingly obeyed ; and it is thought to have been greatly through 
the weight of his individual character that order and police 
were restored throughout the whole city before the close of the 
day. It is also remarked, that no instance has been recorded 
in which the disorder of these three days was made the occa- 
sion of any plunder, or of gratifying any private malice. 

Such was the revolution de trois jours, or of the three days. 
Never before, probably, was any contest of so much moment, 
and so hotly contested, begun and ended bo rapidly. There 
is a story of a party of Englishmen, who had arrived in Paris 
just at the time on a tour of pleasure, and who never found out 
what was going on. They perceived that there was a violent 
tumult, but, being ignorant of the French language, did not 
discover its meaning till they learned on their return home 
from the English newspapers, that they had been " assisting," 
as the phrase was, at a revolution. 

On the 30th of July, the deputies invited the duke of Orleans 
to place himself at the head of the government, with the title 
90 3 K 2 



714 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

of lieutenant-general of the kingdom. The duke accepted the 
offer without delay, and on the following morning issued a pro- 
clamation announcing his appointment, and adding that the 
chambers were about to assemble to consider of the means to 
secure the reign of the laws and the maintenance of the rights 
of the nation, and that the charter should henceforward be a 
reality. He afterwards met the deputies and the members of 
the provisional government at the H6tel de Villa, and pledged 
himself still more strongly to the most popular principles. 

In the mean time, the intelligence of these events was joy- 
fully received as it spread into all parts of the kingdom. The 
tri-colour flag waved everywhere. The troops submitted to the 
orders of the new government, the guards only continuing so 
far their adherence to the court as to deem it their duty still 
to protect the person of the sovereign. All further contest 
was hopeless. The court withdrew on the 31st of July from 
St. Cloud to Trianon, and on the following day to Rambouillet. 
Here, on the 2d of August, the king and the dauphin signed 
an act of abdication — the one of the crown itself, the other of 
his right of succession, in favour of the king's infant grandson, 
the duke of Bordeaux, the son of the unfortunate due de Berri. 
This act of abdication the king addressed to the duke of Or- 
leans, and required him to proclaim the accession of Henry V. 
1^0 such resource, however, to save the crown for this last scion 
of the direct stock of the Bourbons was now available. The 
duke of Orleans, either in his eagerness to be king himself, or 
because he felt that the proposition came too late, suppressed, 
in announcing the king's and the dauphin's abdication, the sti- 
pulation coupled with it as to the duke of Bordeaux. But that 
the stipulation had been made was publicly known, and the 
news threw the capital again into some confusion. 

The mob prepared in thousands to march to Rambouillet, in 
probably much the same temper in which, in the disastrous 
period of August, 1789, another mob of Paris had marched to 
Versailles. But the king, though he had still guards who 
might, and probably would, have defended him successfully 
against an undisciplined multitude, determined not to prolong 
an unavailing resistance. He set out for Cherbourg, and on the 
next day dismissed his guards, retaining only a small escort. 
After a journey in which he was everywhere treated with re- 



FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1830. 7J5 

spect, but not received with any indications of attachment, he 
arrived at that port, August loth. He reached England on the 
17th, and, after a short residence at Lulworth castle in Dorset- 
shire, proceeded to Edinburgh, where the ancient palace of 
Holyrood, w.hich had been his place of abode during a great 
part of his former exile, now once more afforded him an asylum. 

The chamber of deputies proceeded on the 6th and 7th of 
August to revise the charter, and to make the formal appoint- 
ment of the new sovereign. They declared the throne to be 
vacant ; that not only the Roman Catholic, but that all minis- 
ters of Christianity, (and to these were added, at a later period, 
those of the Jews,) should be supported at the public expense ; 
and that all the peerages granted during the reign of Charles X. 
should be null and void. Finally, they resolved that Louis 
Philippe duke of Orleans should be called to the throne, by the 
title, not of king of France, but king of the French, in the 
same manner in which Napoleon had been entitled emperor of 
the French, not of France, and that he should be succeeded by 
his descendants in the direct male line only, in the order of 
birth. 

These resolutions of the house of deputies were transmitted 
on the same day (August 7) to the chamber of peers, though 
rather as a matter of courtesy than with any recognition of 
that house as possessing an independent voice in the legisla- 
ture. The viscount Chateaubriand spoke, but in vain, in behalf 
of the claims of the duke of Bordeaux. The declaration of the 
deputies was adopted, and on the 9th the constitution, as thus 
created, was formally tendered to and accepted by the new 
sovereign. 




716 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




THE EMPEROE OF CHINA. 



THE OPIUM WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND 
AND CHINA. 

^HE prohibition of the importation of opium int© 
Canton having been disregarded by the English, 
the Chinese government resolved on the adoption 
of some extraordinary measures to put an end to 
that illicit trade. Accordingly, commissioner Lin 
issued a proclamation in March, 1839, requiring the opium con- 





BUENING OF THE ENGLISH FACTORIES BY THE CHINESE. 



THE OPIUM WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND CHINA. 7ly 

tained on board the British vessels, or in their store-houses, to 
be given up. After vainly protesting against this measure, the 
British merchants were compelled to comply, and 20,283 chests 
of opium were delivered to the Chinese, and by them destroyed 
or rendered useless ; and in a riot the English factories were 
burnt. In July, a street fight occurred between some English 
sailors and a number of Chinese, in which one of the latter was 
killed. On the refusal of Captain Elliott to surrender the 
offender, Lin issued another proclamation, forbidding the people 
to furnish the English with provisions, who, in consequence, 
were obliged to leave the land and remain on ship-board. Im- 
pelled by hunger, the English next made an attempt to take 
provisions from the inhabitants by force. In vain did Captain 
Elliott endeavour to re-establish a good understanding between 
the parties ; Lin insisting, as a necessary condition, that the 
masters of all vessels, before entering the river of Canton, should 
make a declaration that they had no opium on board, and that, 
in the event of a search being made, and opium being found, it 
should be confiscated, and the individual so found guilty of 
smuggling should forfeit his life. Elliott would not agree to 
these terms, and skirmishes were constantly occurring between 
the Chinese and small parties of the English in search of pro- 
visions, until, at length, on the 7th of September, a fleet of 
war-junks attacked the British armed vessels, but were repulsed 
with considerable loss to the assailants. War was now declared 
by the British government against China. On the 28th of 
February, 1840, an attempt was made to set fire to the English 
vessels. In June, Captain Elliott blockaded the river of Can- 
ton ; and in August, Admiral Elliott entered the river Peiho, 
the river on which Pekin is situated, and so alarmed the emperor, 
that he disavowed the acts of Lin at Canton, and appointed a 
commissioner to conclude a treaty with the English. The pro- 
mised negotiator did not make his appearance at Canton until 
the 29th of November ; and then so little progress was made 
in the drawing up of the treaty, that it soon became evident that 
it was the intention of the emperor merely to amuse the English, 
and to keep them at a distance from his capital. Accordingly, 
Commodore Bremer, who now commanded the British naval 
force, on the 9th of January, 1841, attacked the forts at the 
Bocca Tigris, and inflicted much damage upon the enemy. This 



720 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY, 

induced the commissioner to hasten his operations, and on the 
20th of January, a preliminary treaty was signed, very favour- 
able to the English. A month, however, having elapsed, with- 
out any indication of its ratification by the Chinese being mani- 
fested, hostilities recommenced on the 25th of February. The 
forts at the Bocca Tigris were taken, a fleet of junks destroyed, 
and, on the 18th of March, the English appeared before Canton, 
and established themselves in the suburb containing the fac- 
tories. Then, on the 24th of May, Major-general Sir Hugh 
Gough, at the head of twenty-five thousand men, attacked and 
defeated the Chinese army of fifty thousand, commanded by the 
Tartar general Yeshan, and the minister Hu. He was about to 
storm the city, when the Chinese again offered to negotiate. 
The former treaty, very little modified, was again agreed upon, 
and a portion of the indemnity money paid to the English, who 
consec^uently withdrew their forces to Hong-kong ; but there 
new difficulties were interposed by the Chinese. Captain Elliott 
was now superseded in the office of superintendent by Sir Henry 
Pottinger, and Admiral Parker was appointed to the command 
of the fleet. An expedition was fitted out from Hong-kong in 
August, 1841, and the cities of Amoy, Chusan, Chinhae, and 
Ningpo were captured. On the 18th of May, 1842, the expedi- 
tion captured Chapoo, and on the 13th of June reached the con- 
fluence of the Woosung with the Yang-tse-kiang, where the enemy 
had erected batteries, and mounted two hundred and fifty can- 
non. The position was, nevertheless, carried in two hours. The 
city of Shang-hae was taken on the 19th of June, and on the 
21st of July the British captured by assault the city of Cbing- 
kian-foo. The moral effect produced by the capture of this place 
was decisive ; and when, on the 6th of August, they presented 
themselves before the great city of Nanking, the second in the 
empire, an armistice was earnestly solicited by the Chinese ; en- 
voys arrived from the emperor, and the war was brought to a 
close by a treaty ratified on the 26th of August, 1842. By the 
provisions of this treaty, the emperor consented to indemnify 
the English for the expense of the war, by the payment of 
$21,000,000, the entire cession of the island of Hong-kong, and 
the freedom of trade at the ports of Shanghai, Ning-po, Fou- 
tcheou, Amoy, and Canton. 




91 



Z L 



WAR BETWEEN TTfE r'NiTEP STATES AND MEXICO. 723 




GENERAL TAYLOR. 



THE WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES 
AND MEXICO. 

■g\ EFORE the breaking out 
of hostilities between 
Mexico and the United 
States, circumstances 
rendered a war inevita- 
ble. In February, 1845, 
resolutions annexing the 
republic of Texas to the 
United States passed 
congress. Mexico had 
never acknowledged the 
independence of Texas, 
but looked upon it as a 
rebellious province. The 
consequen ^es of the an- 
nexation to the United States were, therefore, easily foreseen, 
and measures taken to provide for them. Upon the receipt of 




724 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




COKPUS CHRIST 2. 



the news of the adoption of the annexation resolutions by the 
Texan convention, Brigadier-general Taylor, with about two 
thousand five hundred men, was ordered to take a position at 
Corpus Christi, on the river Nueces, to repel any invasion of the 
Mexican forces. The "Army of Observation," as it was called, 
arrived at Corpus Christi, on the 31st of July, 1845. Early in 
February of the following year. General Taylor received orders 
to march to the Rio Grande and take a position on that river. 
The territory between the Nueces and the Rio Grande was dis- 
puted, and there can be no doubt, that whatever may have been 
the prospect of war before, this move hastened hostilities. 

The American army reached the Rio Grande on the 28th of 
March, 1846. A large force of Mexican troops were collected 
at Matamoras, on the opposite side of the river, under the com- 
mand of General Ampudia. Communications between the two 
commanders were immediately opened, but with no satisfactory 
result. The Mexicans and Americans both proceeded to erect 
defences. A strong battery was constructed directly opposite to 
Matamoras by the Americans, and Matamoras was strongly 
fortified by Ampudia's forces. Several slight skirmishes took 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 725 




PORT BROWN. 



place about the middle of April, between bands of Mexicans who 
had crossed the river, and American parties. Colonel Cross was 
murdered by one of the guerillas, and Lieutenant Porter and a 
private killed in a skirmish. Leaving Major Brown with a small 
body of troops in the fort opposite Matamoras, General Taylor 
marched to Point Isabel, at the mouth of the Rio Grande, which 
he reached on the 2d of May, without opposition. 

On the 3d of May, at daybreak, the Mexicans opened their 
fire upon the fort, and it was returned with effect, the heavy gun 
batteries of the Mexicans being silenced in thirty minutes. The 
throwing of shells was incessantly continued, however, and the 
little band in the fort were in great peril. Receiving informa- 
tion that the Mexicans had crossed the Rio Grande, and were 
posted between Point Isabel and Matamoras, General Taylor 
resolved to march and fight the enemy, no matter what might 
be their strength. Accordingly, he started at three o'clock, on 
the 7th of May, and on the 8th, at two o'clock, found the 
enemy in position, in front of a chaparral, which lies opposite to 
the timber of a stream called Palo Alto. General Taylor im- 
mediately formed his hne of battle, although it was clear the 
Mexicans numbered double his force. The Mexicans opened 
the action by a fire from their artillery, and it was returned in 

3l2 



726 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




SIEaE OP POET BE0T7IT. 



a rapid and effective manner by the Americans. Then the fight 
commenced in earnest, and lasted till darkness dropped upon 
the scene. The Mexicans were driven from their position, with 
a severe loss, and the Americans encamped upon the field. 

On the 9th, General Taylor packed the heavy trains, collected 
the enemy's wounded in hospital, buried their dead, arranged 
his own wounded, and moved on in pursuit of the Mexicans. 
They had taken post in a strong position, in the chaparral, on 
each side of the bed of a stream called Resaca de la Palma, 
with their artillery on the road at the crossing. General Taylor 
brought up his troops by battalions, and posted them with brief 
orders to find the enemy with the bayonet, and placed the ar- 
tillery where they could act on the road ; the dragoons being 
held in reserve. The battle was a series of brilliant skirmishes 
and heavy shocks, in which two thousand fighting men, General 
Taylor's whole force, met six thousand, overwhelmed them with 
the precision of their volleys and the steady coolness of the bay- 
onet, and drove them from the field with the loss of their artil- 
lery, baggage, pack-mules, fixed ammunition, and near two 
thousand stand of muskets. 

The total loss of the Americans during both battles was 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 727 

thirty killed, and about one hundred and forty wounded. But 
though the number was small, it included some of the most 
valuable officers in the army. The Mexican loss at Palo Alto 
is set down by themselves at four hundred and fifty, in killed 
and wounded; at Resaca de la Palma, the number of killed, 
wounded, and prisoners was more than twice that number. 
Among the prisoners was General La Vega, captured during a 
brilliant charge of the American dragoons, under Colonel May. 

While the battles of the 8th and 9th of May were raging, the 
Mexican batteries kept up a constant fire upon the American 
fort opposite Matamoras, but the heroic little force that defended 
it sufi'ered but little ; their principal loss being their indomitable 
commander. Major Brown, who was killed by the bursting of a 
shell. As the fugitives from the field of Resaca de la Palma 
arrived at Matamoras, the fire ceased, and the garrison was re- 
lieved by the arrival of General Taylor. 

On the 11th of May, an exchange of prisoners took place, 
and Captain Thornton and his command, who had been surprised 
and captured at the commencement of hostilities, rejoined the 
x^merican army. On the 15th, Bariga, a town near the mouth 
of the Rio Grande, on the Mexican side, was taken by the Ame- 
ricans without opposition, the inhabitants fleeing at their ap- 
proach. At sunrise, on the 17th, General Ampudia signalized 
that he wished to parley. He requested that an armistice might 
be granted, but General Taylor replied that it was too late, and 
on the 18th, the American forces crossed the river, and entered 
Matamoras without opposition. The Mexican general retreated 
to Reynosa, with all his forces. 

Although in possession of Matamoras, General Taylor found 
himself in no condition to advance. He lacked both troops and 
means of transportation. It became necessary, therefore, for 
him to remain at this post during the greater part of the sum- 
mer, waiting for the means to prosecute the invasion. 

In the meantime, Captain McCulloch with the Texan rangers 
had seized and occupied the Mexican ports of Reynosa, Camargo, 
and Mier, without resistance on the part of the enemy. It was 
not until the 5th of August, nearly three months after the bat- 
tle of Resaca de la Palma, that General Taylor was able to take 
up his line of march from Matamoras for Camargo. On ar- 
riving at that place. General Worth was detached to San Juan 



728 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

while Captain Wall occupied Reynosa, and General Twiggs had 
been left in command of Matamoras. Towards the end of 
August, General Worth was ordered to advance to Seralvo and 
there to await further orders. From this port he sent advices 
to General Taylor on the 5th of September, that Monterey had 
just been reinforced by the arrival of three thousand men under 
General Ampudia, thus increasing the garrison to four thousand. 

This important information determined General Taylor to ad- 
vance immediately and attack Monterey. He accordingly took 
up his line of march towards Seralvo on the 7th, leaving General 
Patterson in command of all the forces stationed between Ca- 
margo and Matamoras, 

Disencumbering his troops of all unnecessary baggage, and 
sending forward his supplies on pack-mules to Seralvo, Taylor 
now hastened eagerly on to the next scene in his grand drama. 
On his arrival at Seralvo, instead of waiting for further rein- 
forcements or fresh orders before attacking so formidable a fort 
with so light a force, he pushed forward for Monterey with his 
main body, consisting of but little more than six thousand men. 

The character and extent of the work the Americans had 
before them may be inferred from a short sketch of Monterey : — 
The town is seated in a beautiful valley, bosomed among lofty 
and imposing mountains on the north, east, and south, and open 
to a plain on the west, fortified with thick stone walls in the old 
Spanish fashion of another century, with all the apparatus of 
ditches and bastions, and lowering upon them with deep-mouthed 
cannon. From their elevated position the Americans could see 
in part what they had already learned from spies and deserters, 
that the flat-roofed stone houses of the city itself had been con- 
verted into fortifications. Every street was barricaded, and 
every housetop was bristling with musketry. On one side the 
Americans could see the Bishop's Palace, a strong fort well gar- 
risoned ; on the other, redoubts well manned ; and in the rear of 
all, a river. 

The attack on Monterey began on the 20th of September. The 
Americans were divided into two columns ; one, under the com- 
mand of General Taylor, designed to attack the front of the 
town, and the other, under General Worth, to attack the Bishop's 
Palace and the other strong works in that quarter. The siege 
lasted three days, and was characterized by the display of the 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. >29 




STOEMINQ OF MONTEREY. 



most undaunted bravery on the part of the American soldiers, 
and the most consummate skill on the part of the commanding 
general. One by one the various posts, deemed impregnable, 
fell into the hands of the besiegers, and they even attained strong 
positions in the city before the Mexican generals capitulated. 

The great strength of the defences of Monterey was not fully 
seen until after the capture. The town and works were armed 
with forty-two pieces of cannon, well supplied with ammunition, 
and manned with a force of at least seven thousand troops of 
the line, and from two to three thousand irregulars. The whole 
force of the assailants was about six thousand five hundred men, 
with only one ten-inch mortar suitable for a siege. The loss of 
the Americans was twelve officers, and one hundred and eight 
men killed, and thirty-one officers and three hundred and thirty- 
seven wounded. 

By the terms of the capitulation, the Mexican forces were al- 
lowed to retain certain of their arms, and were to retire, within 
seven days from the capitulation, beyond a line formed by the 
pass of the Riconada, the city of Linares, and San Fernando de 
Preras. The forces under General Taylor were not to advance 

92 



730 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

beyond that line before the expiration of eight weeks, or unti) 
orders were received from the respective governments. 

After establishing his head-quarters in Monterey, General 
Taylor detached Brigadier-general Worth with twelve hundred 
men and eight pieces of artillery to Saltillo. Brigadier-general 
Wool and the column under his command, twenty-four hundred 
strong, with six pieces of artillery, were ordered to occupy the 
town of Parras, a small but beautiful place seventy miles north- 
east of Saltillo. Saltillo, to which Worth was ordered, is about 
seventy miles from Monterey, and at an elevation of about two 
thousand feet above the latter place. General Patterson having 
been withdrawn on an expedition to act in conjunction with the 
fleet in the gulf, General Butler was ordered to take the command 
of the reserve. Saltillo and Parras were occupied by the Ame- 
ricans without any opposition, the enemy having fallen back as 
far as San Luis Potosi. 

Santa Anna had now been recalled to Mexico, and placed at 
the head of affairs, and Paredes deposed. Santa Anna was 
nominally commander-in-chief of the Mexican armies — really 
dictator. He was raising a formidable army to resist the further 
advance of General Taylor. Before December, he had succeeded 
in raising twenty thousand men, and concentrating them at San 
Luis Potosi, which he strongly fortified, and filled with military 
stores. After awaiting the advance of this formidable force for 
some time. General Taylor determined to meet them on their own 
ground. 

On the 30th of December, General Taylor received intelligence 
that General Winfield Scott had been ordered to Mexico, to take 
command of an expedition against Vera Cruz, and the castle of 
San Juan de Ulloa, and a requisition for nearly all the regular 
troops under his command. General Worth was also detached, 
and proceeded to join General Scott. This deprivation of his 
best troops was a source of regret to General Taylor, and it was 
thought would force him to act upon the defensive for a time. 
But by February, 1847, he had received reinforcements raising 
his whole army to about six thousand men. 

Anticipating an attempt on the part of Santa Anna, an at- 
tempt to possess himself of the line of posts between himself 
and Matamoras, he determined to advance and fight a pitched 
battle with him. Accordingly, on the 20th of February, we 



WAR BETWEEN MEXICO AND THE UNITED STATES 731 




OENEEAL WOOL. 



find him encamped at Agua Nueva, eighteen miles south of Sal- 
tillo, and sending out videttes, who return with intelligence that 
Santa Anna is within thirty miles of his position, rapidly ad- 
vancing with some twenty thousand men against his forlorn hope 
of five thousand four hundred. 

On receiving this intelligence, General Taylor determined to 
choose his own battle-ground, and accordingly fell back to an 
admirable position in front of Buena Vista, seven miles south pf 
Saltillo. 

The features of the ground of Taylor's position were such as 
nearly to paralyze the artillery and cavalry of an assailant, 
while his infantry could not derive all the advantage of nume- 
rical superiority. 

On the 22d of February, the advance of the Mexican forces 
came in sight, and Santa Anna, the commanding general, sent 



732 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




TATLOB AT BUENA VISTA. 



General Taylor a summons to surrender, wMch he, of course, 
declined, although Santa Anna informed him that he was sur- 
rounded by twenty thousand men. The Mexicans then opened 
a fire from a mortar, but without execution ; and then made a 
demonstration on the left of the Americans, pouring a tremen- 
dous fire into their ranks. The skirmishing was kept up until 
dark, when General Taylor, leaving General Wool in command, 
returned to Saltillo. The troops bivouacked on the field. 

Early on the morning of the 23d, the battle commenced by 
an attempt of the Mexicans to outflank the left of the Ameri- 
cans, where the Kentucky riflemen were posted. They main- 
tained their position against a vastly superior force, and were 
well supported by the artillery. But they were overwhelmed 
and driven back, with the loss of their guns. The Mexicans 
then poured their masses of infantry and cavalry along the 
base of the mountain on the left, and were gaining the rear in 
great force, when General Taylor arrived on the field, and by 
his skilful and prompt measures, the fortune of the day turned. 
After a bloody conflict, the Mexicans were driven back. An- 
other body of them gained the rear of the Americans, and were 
there cut oS" from the main army. A device of Santa Anna, by 
which he secured time enough for them to rejoin him, was all 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. "33 

that saved them from annihilation. A last and desperate 
attempt was made to force the Americans from their position ; 
and the determined hravery of the Americans, and the vast 
number of the Mexicans, made the conflict extremely obstinate 
and bloody. The splendid artillery of the Americans was served 
with such effect that whole ranks of the enemy were swept by 
it, and at length they fell back. Night put an end to the bat- 
tle. The Americans sank down exhausted upon the field, but 
their untiring general made every preparation for an attack 
the next morning. 

When the morning came, it was found Santa Anna had re- 
treated, evidently satisfied with his previous efforts. No pursuit 
was attempted, it being considered enough to have maintained 
a, position against such an army. The whole number of Ame- 
ricans engaged at Buena Yista was three hundred and thirty- 
four officers, and four thousand four hundred and twenty-five 
men, of which number only four hundred and fifty-three were 
regular troops. The strength of the Mexican ^rmy is set down 
at fifteen thousand infantry, and six thousand cavalry. The 
loss of the Americans was two hundred and sixty-seven killed, 
four hundred and fifty-six wounded, and twenty-three missing. 
The loss of the Mexicans is said, by Santa Anna, to have been 
at least fifteen hundred ; more than five hundred of their killed 
were left upon the field of battle. The victory must be attri- 
buted, in great part, to the artillery of the American army, which 
saved the day at three different times ; but the genius of the 
commanding general was conspicuous from the choice of position 
till the close of the battle, and to his coolness and intrepidity, 
resources and skill, which inspired confidence in the men, must 
be allowed a due consideration. In spite of the great exertions 
of the veteran General Wool, it was clearly evident in the early 
part of the day, that without General Taylor the battle would 
have been lost. 

The subsequent movements of the army under General Tay- 
lor are not of sufficient importance to warrant an extended men- 
tion. After the battle of Buena Vista, the greater part of the 
army encamped upon that bloody field, under the command of 
General Wool; the rest, under General Taylor, encamped at 
Walnut Springs, four miles from Monterey. 

An expedition against the ports on the Gulf of Mexico having 

3 M 



734 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




been determined upon by the United States government, Major 
General Scott was ordered to take command of the troops raised 
for that purpose. He reached the seat of war, January 1st, 
1847. By February, the troops under his command amounted 
to more than eleven thousand men. The proposed object of 
attack was the city of Vera Cruz and the castle of San Juan 
d'Ulloa. The fleet under Commodore Conner was to co-ope- 
rate. This castle is situated on a bar in front of Vera Cruz, 
and is considered the strongest fortress in America. The city 
was also strongly fortified — being surrounded by a wall defended 
by towers. 

Early in March, the American army at Tampico embarked on 
board of the gulf squadron, and on the 7th reached Anton 
Lizardo, near Vera Cruz. A reconnoissance of the coast was 
made by General Scott and Commodore Conner, and a portion 
of the beach west of the Isle of Sacrificios was selected for 
landing the troops. That event took place on the 9th of March. 
No resistance was met with, and nearly four thousand men were 
landed at once. Commodore Conner permitted the marines to 



WAR BKi",Vi;L-N THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 



rSo 




VEBA CRUZ. 



join the artillery upon land. The time from the 9th to the 22(1 
of March was occupied by General Scott in extending his line 
completely round to the beach on the opposite side of Vera 
Cruz, in landing mortars, and in general preparation for a siege. 
On the 22d, he summoned the city and castle to surrender. 
Governor Morales replied, that he had prepared for a vigorous 
defence, and therefore declined. The bombardment was then 
commenced, and the fire being returned from the city and cas- 
tle, it was tremendous. The shells of the Americans told with 
the most destructive effect, and the citizens implored the governor 
to surrender. But he refused to do so, and resigned his oflSce ; 
and General Llandero was appointed to succeed him. He im- 
mediately made overtures for a truce, which was granted on the 
26th of March, and negotiations entered into, which resulted 
in the surrender of the city and castle to the American forces. 
The whole garrison became prisoners of war, and, according to 
the terms of the surrender, marched out to an open plain, on 
the 29th, stacked their arms, and then proceeded towards the 
interior. The Americans entered the city amidst the strains 



736 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




HAENET'S DRASOON FIGHT. 



of their national music, the shouts of the soldiery, and the 
booming of cannon, both from fleet and castle. 

The only fight that occurred during the siege was between 
a body of dragoons, under Colonel Harney, and a greatly supe- 
rior force of Mexican lancers. The latter were put to flight, 
with the loss of nearly one hundred killed and wounded. The 
Americans had two killed and nine wounded. The loss of the 
Mexicans in the city during the whole siege is not known pre- 
cisely. But it is certain that it was very severe. The destruc- 
tion of property was also great. 

After the fall of Vera Cruz, General Scott, having made the 
necessary dispositions for garrisoning the place, took up his line 
of march with the main body of the army for the city of Mexico. 
General Twiggs's division formed the van-guard, and those of 
Worth and Patterson followed several days after. 

On the 17th of April, the army approached the celebrated 
pass of Sierra Gordo, always reputed to be impregnable, and 
which was now strongly fortified, with seven batteries so ar- 
ranged as to protect each other. The position was held by 
General Santa Anna, a host of other Mexican generals, and the 
flower of the national army, twenty thousand strong. They 
were expected to make a desperate stand against the eleven 
thousand Americans who were advancing towards the capital. 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 737 




BATTLE OF SIERRA QORDO. 



General Scott, having reconnoitred the enemy's position, in- 
stantly decided on his plan of operations. This plan, formed 
with the skill of a master, was executed with all the. precision 
that the general could require. The attack began on the 18th 
of April, early in the morning. The troops were all in position 
before daylight. The whole line of the Mexican intrenchments 
and batteries was attacked in front and turned at the same 
time. The troops advanced amidst the most deadly and tre- 
mendous fire, without hesitation, and before two o'clock, p. m., 
the Mexicans were driven from their works and pursued with 
vigour. Their whole force was routed, and Santa Anna came 
near being captured. About three thousand men laid down 
their arms, with the usual proportion of field and company offi- 
cers, besides five generals — a sixth was killed. According to 
General Scott's official despatch, the army was " embarrassed 
with the results of the victory." Nearly all the prisoners were 
released on parole, and the private eifects captured were restored 
to their owners, and the small arms and some ammunition de- 
stroyed. The force of the Americans at Sierra Gordo was 
about eight thousand five hundred. Their loss was thirty-three 
officers and three hundred and ninety-eight men — total, four 
93 3m2 



738 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

hundred and thirty-one, of whom sixty-three were killed. The 
loss of the Mexicans in killed and wounded was never known, 
but during the battle it no doubt equalled their antagonists, and 
in the retreat was greatly augmented by the slaughter committed 
among the fugitives by Harney's dragoons. 

On the same day that the victory of Sierra Gordo was achieved, 
the town of Tuspan was captured, with but slight resistance, by 
a portion of the gulf squadron. On the following day Twiggs 
entered Jalapa, in pursuit of the flying enemy. On the same 
day, and the following, the Mexicans abandoned the strong post 
of La Hoya ; and on the 22d, General Worth entered the strong 
town and castle of Perote. This fortress is one of the most 
formidable in Mexico. It contained fifty-four pieces of cannon, 
bronze and iron mortars, eleven thousand cannon-balls, fourteen 
thousand bombs, and five hundred muskets, all of which fell 
into the hands of the Americans. 

On the 15th of May, General Worth approached the city of 
Puebla. He was met by a party of lancers, supposed to be led 
by Santa Anna, with whom a skirmish ensued, in the plains of 
Amasoca. After losing a few men, the enemy retreated, and 
were driven into the streets of Puebla, where they separated 
and escaped. 

Thus, in less than two months. General Scott and his army 
had captured three large cities, two castles, ten thousand men, 
more than seven hundred cannon, mostly new, and an immense 
quantity of shells, shot, and small arms. For rapidity of exe- 
cution, these achievements have Stcarcely a parallel, except in 
Napoleon's first Italian campaign. 

After the fall of Vera Cruz, the Mexican government author- 
ized the organization of small bands of citizens and villagers, 
armed and mounted. They were termed "guerilla parties," 
and being composed mostly of outlaws and robbers — the dregs 
of the population — they entered upon the campaign with the 
avowed determination to extend no quarter to any who might 
fall into their hands, but to rob and murder as often as occa- 
sion oflFered. Spreading themselves over the country through 
which the route of the Americans extended, they seized the 
mountain fastnesses and strong passes, attacked scouting par- 
ties, intercepted communications, and even entered garrisoned 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 739 

cities at night, and murdered all American stragglers within 
their reach. 

These attacks of the guerillas kept the region between Vera 
Cruz and Puebla in a state of constant alarm, and rendered 
travelling, except with a strong escort, in the highest degree 
dangerous. The most active and daring of these partisans was 
the celebrated Father Jarauta, a priest, who had organized most 
of the parties, and who seems to have been considered as their 
general leader. Vigilant exertions were made to capture him 
by Captain Walker, and General Patterson, who was then sta- 
tioned at Vera Cruz, but without success ; and, until the close 
of the war, he continued to arm and lead different bands, whose 
rapid and fearless movements rendered his name a terror in 
that neighbourhood. 

General Scott, with the main portion of the army, remained 
at Puebla until early in August, when he prepared for a march 
upon the capital. A sufficient garrison was left in the city 
ur.der Colonel Childs. On the 7th, Twiggs's division, preceded 
y Harrcy's brigade of cavalry, moved for the capital; and 
was loiiowed, on the three succeeding days, by the divisions of 
^juitman. Worth, and Pillow, the corps being at no time more 
.han five hours' march, or supporting distance, apart. 

On the 11th of August, the army under Scott descended 
into the valley of Mexico, the different divisions nearing each 
other more closely than they had done in any part of the march. 
A careful reconnoissance of the strong works upon the direct 
road to Mexico, with the character of the ground, determined 
General Scott to avoid it, by passing round the western and 
southern shores of Chalco and Xochimilco, at the foot of the 
hills and mountains. This march round Lake Chalco is a most 
striking evidence of the scientific abilities of General Scott. Santa 
Anna had good reason to believe such a step was impossible. 
It was a work of a most difficult character, but it enabled the 
Americans to escape the terrible batteries of Penon and Mexi- 
calzingo. The advance, under General Worth, reached San 
Augustin on the 18th of August. 

The strong post of Contreras was the first object of attack. 
It was situated on the rocks bordering the western side of the 
valley, mounting twenty-two guns, and garrisoned by seven 
thousand troops. General Smith was despatched at the head 



740 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




BATTLE OP CONIEEEAS. 



of his own brigade, Cadwalader's and a rifle regiment, with 
orders to gain the rear of the post ; and, after encountering 
many obstacles from the nature of the route, and being exposed 
to the fire of the Mexican batteries, he succeeding in reaching 
the village of Encelda. There he was joined by the brigade of 
Colonel Riley, and the whole force passed a stormy night with- 
out fires or shelter. Their whole strength was only three thou- 
sand two hundred men ; and there were at least eighteen thou- 
sand of the Mexicans in the neighbourhood. At three o'clock, 
on the morning of the 20th, silent instructions of the plan of 
attack having been given to the ofiicers, the Americans started 
to perform their work, leaving General Shields, with the New 
York and South Carolina volunteers, who arrived very oppor- 
tunely, in command of the village. Colonel Riley led the ad- 
vance, and as he reached a favourable position, he formed hi.^ 
men into two columns preparatory to the assault. He then 
continued his march, and, arriving in full view of the Mexican 
rear, they opened their fire. Throwing forward a few skii-- 
mishers, he shouted to his men to follow, and rushed to the fort, 
followed by his whole command. This charge, in the face of 
the enemy's fire, was one of the most brilliant actions of the 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITRD STATES AND MEXICO. 741 




GENERAL BBIKLSS. 



war. Through a destructive storm, Riley hurried his shattered 
column, and finished the struggle with the bayonet. Every 
battery in the fort was silenced ; the Mexicans were driven in 
masses from the walls, and were soon flying in every direction. 
The cavalry outside of the walls were attacked at the same time 
by Major Dimick, and routed with great slaughter. The 
guns taken by Santa Anna at Buena Vista were recovered by 
the same company from whom they had been taken. Such was 
the enthusiasm of the Americans, that shouts rent the air con- 
tinually, and the arrival of General Scott, who joined in the 
shouts of the soldiers, added to the hilarity of the occasion. 

The reports of the Mexican officers leave no doubt that there 
was, in and about Contreras, seven thousand regular troops, 
under General Valencia, and a reserve of ten thousand near 
Encelda, under the command of Santa Anna. Their loss was 



742 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GENERAL WORTH. 



seven hundred killed, a large number wounded, and fifteen pri- 
soners, including several generals. The Americans numbered 
three thousand two hundred men, without guns or cavalry, and 
yet they drove twice their number from a fort thought to be 
impregnable, and captured a great quantity of artillery and 
ammunition. The attack was ably planned by General Smith, 
and bravely and rapidly executed by Riley and his men. 

The forces were now disposed for an attack on a still stronger 
position than Contreras. The whole of the remaining forces 
of Mexico, some twenty-seven thousand men, were now collected 
in on the flanks, or within supporting distance of the works, at 
the village of Churubusco. The principal defences were a for- 
tified convent, and a strong field-work, [tete de pont,) with 
regular bastions and curtains, at the head of a bridge over 
which the road passes from San Antonio to the capital. The 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 743 

fortified convent was warmly attacked by Twiggs's division, and 
the tete de pont by Worth and Pillow. The latter was a formi- 
dable work ; but was assaulted and carried by the bayonet, 
after a short but bloody struggle. Three field-pieces, one hun- 
dred and ninety-two prisoners, and a large quantity of ammuni- 
tion fell into the hands of the victors. After the capture of 
the tete de pont, the whole strength of the two divisions was 
directed against the convent, the citadel of the strong line of 
defence at Churubusco. After a desperate conflict of two hours 
and a half, signals of surrender were thrown out on all sides, 
though not before some of the infantry had entered the work. 
The immediate results of this victory were seven field-pieces, 
some ammunition, one colour, three generals, and one thousand 
two hundred and sixty-one prisoners. While the attack was 
being made on the convent and tete de pont, General Shields, 
with two brigades, was detached to the left to turn the enemy's 
works, and prevent the escape of the garrison. The battle at 
that point was long, obstinate, and bloody ; but in the end suc- 
cess crowned the determined bravery of Shields's troops, and 
the Mexicans were driven from the field, with a severe loss in 
killed and wounded, and three hundred and eighty of them 
were taken prisoners. This completed the rout of the Mexicans, 
and they were pursued to within a mile of the capital ; a com- 
pany of dragoons even charged them up to the nearest gate. 

The results of the whole day's work on the 20th of August 
are thus summed up by General Scott : — 

«' It (the army) has, in a single day, in many battles as often 
defeated thirty-two thousand men ; made about three thousand 
prisoners, including eight generals, (two of them ex-presidents,) 
and two hundred and five other officers ; killed or wounded four 
thousand of all ranks, besides entire corps dispersed and dis- 
solved ; captured thirty-seven pieces of ordnance — more than 
trebling our siege train and field-batteries — with a large num- 
ber of small arms, a full supply of ammunition of every kind. 
These great results have overwhelmed the enemy." 

The loss of the Americans, in killed, wounded, and missing, 
was one thousand and fifty-three. The whole force engaged 
during the day was only eight thousand five hundred men. 

The enthusiasm of the Americans did subside upon the en- 
tire rout of the Mexican forces ; but many were anxious to 



744 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




CITY OF MEXICO JROM THE CONTENT OF SAN COSMB. 



push on at once to the attack upon the capital. General Scott, 
however, knew better the character of the work before him, and 
he determined to recruit his men before attempting it. Most 
of the army had been watching, marching, fasting, and fight- 
ing, for more than thirty-six hours, and the garitas and the 
heights of Chapultepec were still to be attacked and conquered 
before the capital could be reached. But Scott was enabled to 
have a still longer rest than he imagined. On the night of the 
20th, a flag of truce came from the Mexicans, asking for an 
armistice and proposing peace. Ever desiring to secure a 
peace and save life. General Scott granted the armistice, mak- 
ing it terminable in forty-eight hours. 

On the 21st, commissioners were appointed by the opposing 
commanders to negotiate a lengthened armistice, to enable 
overtures for peace to be received and considered. On the 22d, 
the commissioners met at Tacubaya, and, after considerable 
discussion, agreed upon sixteen articles for the duration and 
regulation of an armistice. This was to continue as long as 
negotiations were engaged in by the two governments, or until 
Uie commander of either army gave formal notice to the other 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 745 

of the cessation of the armistice, and for forty-eight hours 
afterwards. Prisoners were to be exchanged and guaranties 
given that property would be respected by the invading forces. 
The articles of the armistice were signed by both commanders, 
and commissioners were at once appointed by the Mexican go- 
vernment to meet and open negotiations with Mr. N. P. Trist, 
the American commissioner, who had accompanied the army in 
its march to the capital. They met on the 25th of August; 
but the question of boundary prevented the desired result. 
The Mexican commissioners would consent to any thing almost 
but the surrender of the disputed territory in Texas. Nego- 
tiations were continued until the 2d of September, when Mr. 
Trist handed in his ultimatum, and the commissioners adjourned 
to meet on the 6th. But, in the mean time, events occurred 
which hastened the resumption of hostilities. 

About the 1st of September, some infractions of the truce 
took place, which General Scott passed by upon the receipt of 
apologies. But hearing that Santa Anna had commenced the 
strengthening of his defences in the city, he sent him a note on 
the 6th, informing him that hostilities would commence the 
next day at twelve o'clock. Having learned that many church- 
bells had been sent to the foundry at Casa Mata to be cast 
into guns, and that immense quantities of powder, balls, and 
other military stores, were arriving at the same place. General 
Scott determined to attack it, as well for the sake of the guns 
and stores as to cut off all communication between the city^and 
the castle of Chapultepec. 

The position of the Mexicans at the Casa Mata and the Mo- 
lino del Rey was a very strong one. The right rested upon 
the foundry and fortress of Casa Mata, at the base of a ridge. 
The left rested on the strong stone buildings of Molino del Rey, 
directly under the guns of the castle. Midway between the 
two was a powerful :field-battery, supported on both sides by 
infantry. Most of the defences were skilfully masked, and 
therefore the reconnoissance of them by General Scott was far 
from being satisfactory. The plan of attack was arranged, 
however, by General Scott, and General Worth was appointed 
to execute it at the head of three thousand two hundred men. 

The troops started at three o'clock on the morning of the 
8th of September, and so well was all arranged that they were 
94 3N 



746 INCIDENTS OF , MODERN HISTORY. 

in all their appointed positions by daylight. The report of the 
heavy guns, very soon after the dawn of day, gave the signal 
for the assault. So heavy were the discharges, that in a short 
time masses of masonry fell with tremendous noise, and the 
whole line of intrenchments began to shake. The Mexicans 
returned the fire in rapid succession, unfolding at intervals bat- 
teries and systems of defence of which their enemies had before no 
knowledge. Meanwhile, Major Wright, at the head of the as- 
saulting party, dashed down the slope of an eminence upon which 
he was posted, amid the shouts of the Americans. At the same 
time, the Mexicans opened their central batteries with terrible 
effect, and, as Wright led on his men to the attack, the storm 
seemed to threaten their entire destruction. But they rushed 
on, gained the lines, drove infantry and artillery before them 
at the point of the bayonet, seized the large field-batteries, 
drove off the cannoneers, and trailed its guns upon the retreat- 
ing masses. But, after retreating a short distance, the Mexi- 
cans suddenly halted, rallied, and, seeing the small force by 
which they were attacked, returned to the conflict with new 
energy. The little party was almost overwhelmed by the 
masses of the Mexicans, and eleven out of the fourteen officers 
composing the command, and privates in proportion, were 
struck down by a tremendous fire. The party was thrown 
into confusion ; but General Worth ordered up Cadwalader's 
brigade and the light battalion, and these troops, coming 
into action at a seasonable moment, saved the remnant of 
Wright's men. The struggle was obstinate, but short. The 
Mexicans were again routed, and their central works fully car- 
ried and occupied. The attack was equally successful at the 
left, on Molino del Rey. The works were carried, and the 
Mexicans driven towards Chapultepec. The Casa Mata was 
found to be a far stronger work than first supposed, and the as- 
sailants were driven back with the loss of at least one-third of 
their number. But the capture of the other works enabled the 
Americans to concentrate their strength, and the enemy were 
forced to abandon it after a short but destructive fire. Every 
part of the defences was thus in possession of the assailants. 

The greatness of this achievement may be made apparent 
from a statement of the strength of the opposing forces and 
the results of the victory. The entire line of strong fortresses 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 749 

captured was defended by fourteen thousand men, with all the 
means necessary for defence ; yet they were carried by three 
thousand two hundred men. The loss of the Mexicans was 
about three thousand, exclusive of a great number who deserted 
after the rout. Eight hundred prisoners, including fifty-two 
commissioned officers, were taken. Generals Valdarez and 
Leon, the second and third in command, were killed. A great 
quantity of stores of all kinds and all the guns fell to the vic- 
tors. But these results were not obtained without a severe loss 
on the part of the assailants. Nine officers and one hundred 
and seven men were killed ; forty-nine officers and six hundred 
and fifteen men wounded, and there were eighteen rank and 
file missing. 

The capture of the works at Molino del Rey left no obstruc- 
tion to the attack on the city but the castle of Chapultepec. 
This fortress was now cut off from all immediate communica- 
tion with the city. It was on a natural mound of great height, 
strongly fortified at its base, acclivities, and passes. Besides 
a numerous garrison, it contained the military college, with a 
large number of students. The capture of this castle was re- 
solved upon by General Scott, and the plan devised with his 
usual skill. The assault was the first of a series of brilliant 
achievements, continuing more than two days, ending in the 
capitulation of the city, to which General Scott gave the name 
of the battle of Mexico. We must content ourselves with a 
brief sketch of these events, the intricacy of the movements 
and the extent of the battle preventing any thing like a detail 
of them. It is apparent, however, that this two days' fight 
was one of the most remarkable displays of the science and 
abilities of a general and the daring and heroism of soldiery 
to be found in the annals of war. 

The assault upon Chapultepec began early on the 12th of 
September. The two divisions that moved to the attack in 
different directions were commanded by Generals Quitman and 
Pillow. A bombardment and cannonade was opened upon the 
castle at an early hour, but stopped when the assault com- 
menced. The Mexicans opened all their batteries as the Ame- 
ricans rushed forward to the attack, and the fire was tremen- 
dous. But the assailants pushed on up the broken ascent, over 
rocks and mines, and soon carried a redoubt. General Pillow 

3 n2 



750 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




STORMING OF CHiPUlTEPEC. 



was struck down by a grape-shot ; but he Avas carried along 
with his party up the height, the troops being led by General 
Cadwalader. The assault was rapidly conducted, and the men 
of Pillow's division reached the castle first. Many were thrown 
from the walls ; but the stream that followed soon took their 
places, and planted the colours of the United States on the 
highest walls. The other division, under Quitman, had more 
serious work. The batteries and works at the foot of the hill 
were only carried after a desperate struggle. Seven pieces of 
artillery, one thousand muskets, and five hundred and fifty 
prisoners, including one hundred officers, were the results of the 
victory at the lower batteries. About eight hundred prisoners, 
including one major-general and six brigadiers, and a great 
number of inferior officers, were captured by Pillow's division. 
The forces in and around Chapultepec amounted to six thousand 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 751 

men, under the veteran General Bravo. Of the number, eigh- 
teen hundred were either killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. 

The capture of Chapultepec opened to the American army 
the direct road to the -western and southern portions of the 
city, which points now became the objects of attack. Aware 
of the importance of improving upon the impression made upon 
the enemy by so heavy a loss. General Scott determined to 
waste no time, but to press on immediately to the decisive as- 
sault. 

Two great routes lead from Chapultepec to the capital. That 
on the right enters the Belen with the Piedad road from the 
south ; the second, obliquing to the left, intersects the great 
western or San Cosme road, in' a suburb outside the San Cosme 
gate. Each of these routes is an elevated causeway, having 
a double road on the sides of an aqueduct of strong masonry, 
of great height, and resting on open arches and massive pillars, 
affording fine points both for attack and defence. In addition 
to this, the sideways of both aqueducts were defended by many 
strong breastworks, both at the gates and before reaching them, 
the whole presenting a chain of breastworks, every link of which 
would have to be broken before the city could be entered. 

The attack upon the city was made by two divisions. One, 
under General Worth, advanced along the road to the San 
Cosme gate ; the other, under General Quitman, took the Ta- 
cubaya road, which led to the Belen gate. The troops of both 
divisions were exposed to a tremendous fire from the Mexican 
batteries ; but they pressed on without faltering, and battery 
after battery was either silenced or captured. In the mean 
time, as part of the plan of attack, General Twiggs diverted 
the attention of the Mexicans by an incessant cannonade 
against the southern side of the city. At length the strong 
fortress of San Cosme was carried by Worth and his followers, 
and shouts announced his entrance into Mexico. Quitman met 
with a more obstinate resistance, being opposed at the Belen 
gate by General Santa Anna in person. The ammunition of the 
advance of the troops gave out, and they were exposed to a 
destructive fire until the deficiency was supplied. The garita 
was carried with a severe loss, and then darkness fell upon the 
scene. The Mexicans ceased firing, and the troops of Quit- 
man's division set about erecting batteries to maintain tlieir 



752 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




GENERAL QUITMAN. 



position within the citj. Worth was well prepared to continue 
the attack ; but soon after his heavy guns were placed in a fa- 
vourable position, a flag came from the municipality, the bearer 
of which stated that the government and the army had evacu- 
ated the city. All firing ceased upon the receipt of this flag. 
Worth's loss during the day was two officers killed and ten 
wounded, with one hundred and twenty-nine rank and file, killed, 
wounded, and missing. Quitman's loss was five hundred and forty 
men, of whom seventy-seven, including eight officers, were killed, 
four hundred and fifty-four wounded, and nine missing. 

On the morning of the 14th of September, General Scott 
gave orders to Generals Worth and Quitman to advance cau- 
tiously towards the heart of the city. In obedience to these 
orders, Quitman proceeded to the grand plaza and hoisted the 
flag of the United States upon the national palace. General 



WAR BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND MEXICO. 753 

Worth halted within three squares of the goal of general am- 
bition. The remainder of the army, under the personal direc- 
tion of Major-General Scott, soon followed the advanced divi- 
sions, and the entrance was conducted amid the sounds of the 
national music of the United States, Immediately upon en- 
tering, the troops were fired upon from the roofs of houses, 
windows, and corners of the streets, by a large number of con- 
victs, liberated by the flying government. In spite of the ex- 
ertions of the Mexican authorities, the fire was not stopped 
until many of the Americans were killed or wounded. Gene- 
ral Scott issued a proclamation, as soon as he was fixed in 
quarters, enforcing rules of order upon the soldiers, and calling 
on the men to return thanks to God for their important con- 
quests. General Quitman was appointed governor, and the 
citizens returned to their homes satisfied with the prospect of 
peace. 

The army that took possession of the city of Mexico was 
only six thousand strong ! The numerous garrisons and the 
heavy losses in battle had reduced it to that number. This 
small force had beaten more than thirty thousand men, posted 
in the strongest positions ; killed or wounded more than seven 
thousand officers and men ; taken three thousand seven hun- 
dred and thirty prisoners, including thirteen generals and a 
large number of inferior officers ; captured one hundred and 
thirty-two pieces of cannon, twenty thousand small arms, and 
an immense quantity of ammunition and other stores. The 
most celebrated and glorified actions which have occurred in 
the campaigns of Napoleon or Wellington might well shrink in 
comparison with the display of generalship on the part of Ge- 
neral Scott, or of heroic daring and rapidity of execution on 
the part of his officers and men, to be found in the history of 
these battles. 

Upon the same day the capital was taken, the small force 
left in the works at the city of Puebla was besieged by the 
Mexicans, and the fire kept up until the arrival of General 
Santa Anna on the 22d of September. The fire was returned 
by the besieged with considerable effect, though the small force 
was reduced to great straits. On the 25th, Colonel Childs, the 
commander of the garrison, was summoned to surrender, which 
he declined. Santa Anna then opened his batteries upon the 
95 



754 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

American works, and the fire was so extensive and constant 
tliat the most untiring vigilance was necessary on the part of 
the garrison. The bombardment and cannonade continued Avith 
undiminished energy until the 12th of October, when General 
Lane arrived with reinforcements for the wearied garrison. The 
siege of Puebla lasted forty days, and was the longest single 
military operation of the war. The result will appear astonish- 
ing, when it is remembered that it was sustained by about four 
hundred troops, encumbered with eighteen hundred sick, and 
deficient in supplies, against an army, according to Santa 
Anna's statement, eight thousand strong. General Lane had 
several encounters with the enemy on the road from Vera Cruz, 
and defeated them, although in much superior force. In one 
of these skirmishes. Captain Walker, the noted Texan ranger, 
was killed. The guerillas were very active, and, doubtless, 
their partial success kept up the spirits of the Mexicans and 
delayed the conclusion of a peace. 

The abortive attempts of Mr. Trist to establish peace, imme- 
diately after the battles of Contreras and Churubusco, did not 
terminate his mission as a negotiator with the Mexican repub- 
lic. Efi"orts were made both by himself and General Scott, 
from time to time, for the purpose of bringing about so desira- 
ble a result. These were at length crowned with success. In 
January, the general-in-chief laid before the Mexican authori- 
ties the basis of a treaty, similar in its general features to the 
one formerly rejected. They appointed Luis G. Cuevas, Ber- 
nardo Conto, and Miguel Atristain, as commissioners. Mr. 
Trist acted as the representative of the United States. The 
negotiators met at Guadalupe Hidalgo, and, after a reciprocal 
communication of their respective powers, arranged and signed 
a " treaty of peace, friendship, limits, and settlement, between 
the United States and the Mexican republic." 

This treaty was ratified, with some amendments, by both 
governments, and by it the United States became possessed 
of the territories of California and New Mexico, paying there- 
for fifteen millions of dollars. 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND '49 755 




LOUIS PHILIPPE. 



THE ERENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND '49. 



HE year 1848 will ever be noted as 
the period during -wliieli the people of 
the majority of the European states 
made the most desperate and the most 
heroic exertions to break down the 
power of their kings, or, at least, to 
secure constitutional governments. A 
general calm pervaded Europe dur- 
ing the latter part of 1847, as if the 
elements of a storm were gathering 
their strength for one tremendous 
burst. The king of France, under 
the guidance of his able minister, 
Guizot, directed his efforts constantly to two great ends, to con- 
centrate as much power in the executive branch of the govern- 
ment as possible, and to maintain peace with the European na- 
tions. In the accomplishment of the first object, the rights of 
the people were subject to constant and growing encroachment. 
Paris was strongly fortified, and defended by more than a hun- 
dred thousand armed troops. Nothing appeared less likely than 
a successful revolution of the people ; and, therefore, the con- 
vulsion which soon took place was the more astonishing to the 




756 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

government and foreign observer. But the seeds of repub- 
licanism were sown deep in the minds of the lower classes of the 
French people, and all the excesses of the Reign of Terror could 
not eradicate their hatred of tyranny, or their belief in the 
republican doctrines. There were able and eloquent men "who 
sided with them in their opinions and feelings, and the chamber 
of deputies was the scene of many exciting debates upon the 
measures of the government. 

For some time previous to the revolution of February, signs 
of discontent began to manifest themselves. A desire for par- 
liamentary reform pervaded all classes of the people, and not 
Jess than sixty-two reform banquets were held in various towns 
during the fall of 1847. But none of these demonstrations was 
of sufficient magnitude to warrant an opinion of any serious re- 
sult, and the government persevered in its measures. Em- 
boldened by the enthusiasm displayed at these banquets, the 
leaders of the opposition resolved on holding a monster banquet 
at the capital. Then the government became alarmed, and 
resolved to prevent this display of the friends of liberty. JMili- 
tary preparations were made on the most extensive scale ; guns 
mounted on all the fortresses around Paris ; large stores of am- 
munition provided, and no means of preserving order neglected. 

On the 29th of December, 1847, the chambers met. The 
debate on the address in reply to the king's speech occupied 
nineteen sittings. On the 12th of February, the opposition 
members refused to vote on the address ; but they assembled the 
next day, and resolved unanimously not only on attending the 
monster banquet, but also, that no member of their party should 
participate in presenting the address to the king, even if chosen 
by lot. Before adjourning, they fixed upon Tuesday, the 22d 
of February, as the day of the banquet, and invited the national 
guard and the students of the universities to be present. This 
increased the alarm of the government, and the national guard 
were forbidden to take part in the banquet. But this measure 
only increased the firmness and determination of the opposition. 
Early on the 22d of February, crowds of people moved towards 
the Champs Elysees, and, at noon, the vast area between the 
chamber of deputies and the Madelaine church was thronged by 
about thirty thousand people. The banquet was dropped by the 
popular leaders, but, at noon, a procession was formed, which 



THE FRENCH DEVOLUTION OF 1848 AND '19. 



759 




^^^mw 



proceeded to the hotel where the meetings of the opposition were 
held. Another body of the people succeeded in gaining the 
interior of the chamber of deputies. These the troops ejected, 
and the mob retired, shouting " Down with Guizot,'' and singing 
the ' Marseillaise hymn of liberty. All efforts to disperse the 
crowds of people were useless, and they laughed at the soldiers 
while they began to barricade the streets. The skirmishing 
continued all the afternoon : but, by midnight, all Paris was in 
possession of the soldiery. The next morning, the conflict com- 
menced in earnest. Barricades were erected at every feasible 
time and place, and all kinds of missiles accumulated for use 
against the troops. The national guard declared for the people, 
and shouted loudly for reform. Several times during the day, 
were the national guard and the municipal troops on the point 
of coming in collision. The latter, however, always retreated. 
The people prevailed, and it was announced that Guizot had 
dissolved his cabinet. 

For a while, it was thought peace would be restored. But 
about ten o'clock at night, the troops of the line, no doubt irri- 
tated by the people, fired upon them at the Hotel des Etrangers, 
and fifty of their number fell dead or wounded. This roused 
the mob to seek revenge, in the same manner that the Boston" 
massacre hastened the American revolution. Now burst the 



760 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




ODILLON BARROT. 



storm so long pent up. The work at the barricades was re- 
newed with ardour, and on the following morning, the 24th, 
there was not a single leading street without a fortress. The 
national guards were called to their posts, and the defences of 
the municipal guards were attacked and taken. Meanwhile the 
attempts to form a new ministry failed. Even the appointment 
of Thiers could not calm the storm, although he accepted Odillon 
Barrot as one of his cabinet. The whole population was armed, 
and by twelve o'clock, on Thursday the 24th, the military power 
had passed from the government. The dense crowd moved 
towards the Tuileries and the Palace Royal. The whole of that 
quarter of the town was invested. At one o'clock, a procla- 
mation was posted, declaring that the king had abdicated in 
favour of the count de Paris, with the duchess of Orleans as 
regent. 

But it was too late. Neither the dynasty nor its palace could 
be saved by so tardy a concession. Red flags were here and 
there hoisted among the mob, with the word republic rudely 
traced upon them. The ominous cry began to swell, " To the 
gallows with Louis Philippe !" At half past twelve, the attack 
on the Palace Royal commenced, and for an hour the firing upon 
it was excessive. It was carried by storm, and at the same 




302 



00 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND '49. 763 

time the Tuileries surrendered without resistance. As the 
people entered on one side, Louis Philippe with his family es- 
caped on the other. The national guard marched in with their 
muskets shouldered, the muzzle downwards, followed by thou- 
sands of the people. A general ransacking of the royal apart- 
ments commenced ; conducted with a strange mixture of order, 
enthusiasm, and inconsistency. 

In the chamber of deputies, the scene on Thursday was most 
extraordinary. It was not an inapt repetition of what occurred 
in the constitutional assembly, on the 10th of August, 1792, and 
of the decisive blow struck by Bonaparte on the 18th, when 
with his grenadiers he turned the legislative body out of doors. 
At one o'clock the president took the chair, upwards of three 
hundred members being present. They gazed on each other 
with mingled anxiety, alarm, and exultation. Half an hour 
afterwards, the duchess of Orleans entered with her two sons, 
and the dukes of Nemours and Montpensier. The young count 
de Paris came first, led by one of the deputies. With great 
difficulty way was made for him amid the crowd of officers and 
soldiers of the national guard. His appearance at the door 
caused a strong sensation, which soon broke forth into murmurs 
and hostile exclamations. Several of the people, however, 
rushed into the chamber with the young count, and placed him 
under the tribune. Immediately after the duchess of Orleans 
entered and seated herself in a chair, with her two sons beside 
her. By this time the passages and every vacant space was 
filled with such of the populace as had succeeded in pressing 
themselves in along with the national guard. The chamber was 
agitated in every part. M. Dupin arose, and announced the 
abdication of the king, and the regency of the duchess of Or- 
leans. The scene that followed this announcement baffles de- 
scription. One voice was heard above the others exclaiming, 
" It is too late." The duchess and her children now appeared 
amid a group of deputies, the national guards hastened to sur- 
round the royal family. The debate commenced, one long and 
stormy. During its progress a crowd rushed into the chamber, 
composed of national guards in arms and citizens carrying 
sabres, guns, swords, and flags. So great was the excitement 
that many of the deputies hastily retired, together with the 
duchess and her sons. 



764 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Lamartine and Ledru Rollin ascended the tribune, and wrote 
out the names of members of a provisional government. The 
deputies then retired. 

At the Hotel de Ville, another terrible scene occurred. There 
the members of the provisional government met, to decide what 
course to adopt. The people demanded aloud that the first act 
of the members should be communicated to them. The majority 
of the members were opposed to an unmitigated democracy, but 
the people were inflexible in their demands. The president, M. 
Dupont de I'Eure, was compelled to give up the attempt to be 
heard, when he recommended the republic in its less democratic 
form, and he was so exhausted that he twice fainted. M. Marie 
met with no better success. Finally, after the most untiring 
exertions, the provisional government was announced to consist 
of Dupont de I'Eure, Lamartine, Arago, Marrast, Ledru Rollin, 
Gamier Pages, Flocon, and Louis Blanc ; and the democratic re- 
public was proclaimed and received with unparalleled unanimity. 
Universal suffrage was established ; the death penalty abolished; 
and other popular measures adopted. On the day after the bat- 
tle, the 25th of February, order was in a great measure restored 
through the exertions of Lamartine, who addressed the people 
five times from the windows of the Hotel de Ville, and thus pre- 
vented an outbreak. But it was a terrible struggle. The more 
violent of the mob demanded the destruction of the provisional 
government. The triumph of the oratory of Lamartine was 
complete, however, and calmness and order took the place of 
violence and confusion. Business revived, and the principal 
personages who had adhered to the late king gave in their sub- 
mission to the republican government. 

On the following Sunday, the 27th of February, a general 
holiday and festivity was celebrated. The provisional govern- 
ment reviewed the national guards, and in the evening there was 
a general illumination. The week succeeding the revolution was 
occupied by the provisional government in restoring public con- 
fidence. Twenty thousand of the most indigent youth of Paris 
were quickly enrolled, and marched off to the frontier, and thus 
was the public peace secured from the outbreaks of an idle and 
starving populace. On Saturday, the 4th of March, the funeral 
obsequies of those who fell among the people during the revolu- 
tion were conducted with much pomp and ceremony. 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND '49. 765 




LBDEU EOLLIN. 



. Peace being restored, it became necessary to adopt measures 
for the election of permanent officers of the republic. This W3S 
a gigantic task. A people were to choose rulers, who had been 
unaccustomed to ruling themselves. The mode of ballot, and the 
qualifications of electors and candidates were to be arranged. 
The 23d of April was named as the day of the election. A new 
constitution was to be drawn up by the constituent assembly of 
the people. The number of representatives was to be nine hun- 
dred. Suifrage was to be direct and universal, and all citizens 
twenty-five years old were eligible, if possessed of civil rights. 
The ballot was to be secret. Ledru Rollin opposed the decree 
containing the above provisions, and issued an incendiary pro- 
clamation, which was disavowed by the other members of the pro- 
visional government. He even threatened to call the people to 
resist and overthrow the government, but was deterred for the 
time by the determination of Gamier Pages, who threatened to 
shoot him if he did. It was soon apparent that the working 
classes were dissatisfied with the quiet which succeeded the revo- 
lution. Trees of liberty were planted in various parts of Paris, 
illuminations and firing of artillery took place at night, and the 
spirit of anarchy was kept alive by inflammatory addresses issued 
by the socialist and red republican leaders, among whom Ledru 
Rollin was the most conspicuous. 



766 



INCIDENTS OF, MODERN HISTORY. 




LAMARTINE. 



On Saturday, April 16tli, an attempt was made to overthrow: 
the moderate section of the government, hut the plot was de- 
feated hy the prompt and cordial manner in which the national 
guard, numbering more than two hundred thousand men, rallied 
to the support of the government. Lamartine and his colleagues 
found themselves much strengthened by the attempt to break 
down their power, and they were enabled to bring the troops of 
the line back to Paris, with the approbation of the citizens. On 
Thursday, April 20th, the great fete to celebrate the return of 
the troops of the line took place. Three hundred thousand 
armed men, and as many spectators, were mingled together for 
seven or eight hours, Avith the greatest cordiahty. A grand 
illumination took place in the evening. 

Meanwhile the election tor representatives to the national as- 
sembly came off on the day appointed. The moderate repub- 
licans gained a complete triumph. Lamartine was chosen by 
nine cities, as their representative, and all candidates who had 
over two thousand votes were declared members of the assembly. 
On the 4th of May, the republic was officially proclaimed, amid 
the firing of artillery and the shouts of the people ; and, on the 
following day, the members of the provisional government ten- 
dered their resignations from office, and received the thanks of 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND '49. 



767 




LOUIS BLANC. 



the nation. The assembly then appointed five of their number 
as an executive committee, in the place of the provisional go- 
vernment. Their names were, Arago, Garnier Pages, Marie, 
Lamartine, and Ledru Rollin. 

Several serious riots occurred at Eouen, Elboeuf, and other 
manufacturing towns, which were not suppressed without blood- 
shed. They were instigated by the socialist and communist 
leaders, who clung to their theories with a tenacity undiminished 
by defeat, and watched the moment for establishing them by 
force of arms. The celebrated Louis Blanc was one of the most 
active of these men, and contributed as much as any one else to 
bring about the struggle between the workingmen and the mid 
die classes. The first serious manifestation of the feeling of the 
socialists and red republicans occurred on the 15th of May. A 
large meeting was held in the capital, to express sympathy for 
the Polish patriots who had lately attempted a revolution. The 
wildest excitement prevailed, and the national assembly was de- 
nounced in the most bitter terms. About fifty thousand persons 
followed a committee to the national chamber, where they de- 
manded that France should interfere in the Polish quarrel. The 
greatest uproar and excitement filled the chamber, as the crowds 
rushed in and were cheered on by the leaders of the clubs. An 



768 INCIDENTS OF MODEKN HISTORY. 

attempt was made to get up a provisional government composed 
entirely of socialists and communists, and the assembly dispersed 
amid the clamour and threats of the populace. The national 
guard promptly rallied for the republic, and were joined by the 
"garde mobile" and the troops of the line. Lamartine headed 
them, and was received with enthusiasm. In a short time, the 
mob dispersed, and their most prominent leaders, Barb^s, Al- 
bert, Blanqui, Raspail, and Sobrier, were captured and thrown 
into prison. 

Other commotions followed at various periods, which served 
to show the state of feeling existing between the red republi- 
cans and the moderates. Another party was soon added to 
these, occasioned by the election of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte 
to a seat in the national assembly. A paper was started to 
advocate his cause, and mobs, shouting for an emperor, were 
only dispersed by the soldiers with difficulty. But the great 
struggle was yet to come. The workingmen, imbued with the 
spirit of socialism and communism, had engaged in the revolu- 
tion of February with the hope that their favourite theories 
would be put in practice, and that they would reap the greatest 
benefit from it. In their view, the revolution was fruitless, 
since the doctrines of the moderate republicans had triumphed. 
On the other hand, the middle classes were satisfied with the 
results of the revolution, and were determined to resist all at- 
tempts to disturb the order of things. Both parties prepared 
themselves for a desperate contest. 

The first hostile demonstration occurred on the 22d of June. 
A body of workmen appeared before the palace of the Luxem- 
bourg, and demanded to see the executive committee. M. Ma- 
rie consented to receive five of their number, but the interview 
was fruitless to both parties. The workmen then gathered 
a great crowd, and proceeded through the streets, shouting 
"Down with the executive committee !" Towards evening, the 
mob had increased to such a size that an additional military 
force was called out and kept under arms all night. The next 
morning it was found that the rioters had erected barricades in 
every quarter of the city, and were preparing for a struggle. 
The battle began at the Porte St. Dennis, which was barricaded 
very strongly and defended with obstinacy. The troops tri- 
umphed, however, and the barricades were carried at the point 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND '49. 769 

of the bayonet. Boys and women took part with the insur- 
gents, and several of them were distinguished for their bravery 
and the ardour with which they fought. 

The executive committee met at the Luxembourg, and ap- 
pointed General Cavaignac commander-in-chief of all the forces 
in and around Paris. He was allowed to take what steps he 
deemed proper without interference from the civil authorities. 
On Saturday, the insurgents continued their operations with 
persevering tenacity of purpose at St. Marceau, St. Antoine, 
St. Dennis, and other points. The assembly appointed Gene- 
ral Cavaignac dictator, and declared Paris in a state of siege. 
Before Saturday evening, the general had suppressed the insur- 
rection on the left bank of the Seine and the Cite. But the 
most terrible struggle was at the Clos St. Lazarre. The assail- 
ants fought with a desperation rarely equalled, and at four 
o'clock two hundred men of one battalion of the " garde mo- 
bile" had fallen. At six o'clock, the national guards joined 
their friends in a grand effort on the Clos St. Lazarre. Before 
this, a party, led by General Cavaignac in person, carried the 
first barricade of the Faubourg St. Antoine ; but the stronger 
position could not be reduced. The slaughter at this point was 
terrible. 

The appearance of Paris at this time was dreary in the ex- 
treme. At least three hundred thousand troops were under 
arms against one hundred and twenty thousand insurgents. 
One-fourth of the city had been ruined to build barricades, and 
garrisoned so as to be impassable. General Cavaignac sup- 
pressed several papers which were disseminating political dis- 
cord, and endeavouring to inflame the passions of the people, 
and strictly forbid all placards but those issued by the govern- 
ment. On Sunday, the contest at the Pantheon was of the 
most determined character. For fifteen hours the firing con- 
tinued incessant, and the slaughter on both sides was appalling. 
At length military discipline triumphed, and the street was 
cleared. The prisoners taken by the insurgents were horribly 
mutilated by them ; but it must be remembered that the work- 
ingmen were maddened by starvation and the instigation of bad 
men At this stage of the rebellion, the archbishop of Paris 
offered to go among the insurgents and try to restore order 
The offer was accepted, and the archbishop proceeded to the 
97 3P 



77P 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




ABCHBISHOP OF PABIS. 



Place de Bastile, bearing a proclamation of General Cavaignac 
that hostilities should cease. The firing ceased on both sides ; 
but, during the cessation, the combatants came within reach of 
each other and got into personal scuffles. Suddenly the firing 
recommenced. The prelate, thus placed between the two parties, 
received a shot in the groin, and was borne away mortally 
wounded. This event caused regret on both sides — the insur- 
gents declaring they did not intend to injure him. 

On Monday morning, the conflict was renewed with desperate 
valour on both sides. But Generals Cavaignac and Lamoriciere 
captured the barricades one after another, and before night the 
insurgents were either killed, captured, or dispersed, and the 
insurrection was suppressed. More than twenty thousand peo- 
ple had fallen in the four days' contest, and the number of pri- 
soners embarrassed the government. Lamartine and the other 
members of the executive committee displayed great courage 
and activity during the trying time, and well deserved the 
thanks of the nation. The remainder of the week was em- 
ployed in burying the dead, repairing damages done to the city, 
and restoring order. Troops continued to pour into Paris for 



THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND '49. 771 




GENERAL HEORIEB. 



some days subsequent to the suppression of the revolt, until 
their number amounted to three hundred thousand men. Ge- 
neral Cavaignac resigned his absolute power to the assembly on 
the 29th ; but such was the gratitude of the people for his ser- 
vices, that he was immediately created president of state, with 
authority to name his officers. General Changarnier was ap- 
pointed commander-in-chief of the national guards. Guards 
were placed at the end of every street to prevent the assassina- 
tion of citizens by the disaffected. The energy of General 
Cavaignac was fully displayed in crushing every manifestation 
of a renewal of the disturbances, and in his determination to 
maintain law and order. The 14th of July was appointed for 
the holding of a great banquet, in which two hundred thousand 
workmen were to take part. Its occurrence was prevented by 
a disclosure that a plot existed to assassinate all the members of 
the national assembly and the heads of government. The great 
number of soldiers on duty in Paris and the vigorous measures 
of the government dampened the courage of the workmen. 

Many distinguished men fell in the four days' battle with the 
insurgents; but none was more lamented than General Negrier 
He fought bravely upon the side of order, and was shot dead 



772 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 



while advancing towards a barricade at the head of his men. 
General Charbonnel, a member of assembly, was mortally 
wounded at his side. He was interred with the greatest honours 
paid to the illustrious dead. 

The good results of the revolution were not appreciated by 
the great mass of the French people, until the constitution of 
the republic had been framed and adopted by the national as- 
sembly. Then a feeling of confidence and security took the 
place of fear and excitement, and all kinds of business revived. 
The constitution was proclaimed on Sunday, the 12th of No- 
vember, 1848. The election for president of the republic took 
place on the 10th of December. The principal candidates were 
Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, General Cavaignac, and Ledru Rol- 
lin. Nearly eight million votes were polled, of which Louis 
Napoleon Bonaparte received six million. The quiet with 
which the election was conducted gave promise of the entire 
restoration of order and harmony to the nation. The newly 
elected president, Bonaparte, was formally proclaimed as the 
head of the republic on the 20th of December. He selected 
Odillon Barrot to form a ministry, and thus, after a year of ex- 
traordinary exertion, was Prance changed from a monarchy, 
with a titled nobility, to a constitutional republic, with the peo- 
ple placed upon an equality, which can only be destroyed by 
wealth or talent. 




INSURRECTIONS IN GERMANY. 



773 




PKINCB WINDISCHGRATZ. 



THE INSURRECTIONS IN GERMANY. 



HE news of the February re- 
volution in France threw all 
Germany into commotion. The 
success of the French people 
stimulated the Germans to make 
strenuous efforts to secure their 
rights. The idea of a union 
of all the German states into 
one confederacy was long a 
favourite one with the people 
of the various states. They now demanded a new civil and 
criminal code for all Germany, ratifying, among other things, 
the freedom of the press, trial by jury and publicity in all judi- 
cial proceedings, representative government in the several states, 
with the right of voting taxes vested in the people alone, civil 
equality without distinction of creed, and, lastly, that the peo- 
ple, as well as the princes, should be represented in the council 

3p2 




774 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

of the German confederation. These demands were the o^d 
creed of the liberal party of Germany, for which they had suf- 
fered every kind of persecution. But they were now extorted, 
with more or less violence, in the space of three weeks, from 
every sovereign in Germany. 

The first act of submission was made by the king of Wur- 
temberg, on the 3d of March, and the example was followed by 
his brother sovereigns in rapid succession ; those of Bavaria 
and Hesse Darmstadt abdicated, after they had complied with 
the demands of their subjects. On the 13th, the old system 
perished in its metropolis, Vienna, after a street tumult (for it 
was not a fight) of three or four hours ; and on the 18th the 
new order of things was established in Berlin, and consecrated 
by a lavish and gratuitous outpouring of blood. 

The king of Saxony refused to grant the reforms demanded, 
and called out the troops ; but they would not act against the 
people, and the king was forced to grant every thing. King 
Ernest, of Hanover, also refused all concessions when first 
pressed. He then talked of abdicating ; but the Hanoverians 
were unmoved from their purposes by this threat, and the king 
resigned himself to his fate, consenting to receive Stiibe as one 
of his ministers. This man had spent many years in prison 
for resisting the tyranny of the king of Hanover. 

Serious riots had occurred in Bavaria on the 19th of Feb- 
ruary, occasioned by an insolent freak of Lola Montez, the 
king's mistress. Lola was compelled to quit Munich, and, hav- 
ing returned to it on the 9th of March, she was removed by 
the police. The king was compelled either to give up his fas- 
cinating mistress or to abdicate his throne ; and the infatu- 
ated old monarch chose the latter alternative. The time for 
a people to bear with the insolent freaks of their rulers was 
past. 

The revolution in Vienna began on the occasion of the open- 
ing of the diet for Lower Austria. The business of the day 
had not proceeded more than half an hour, when it was inter- 
rupted by a mass of people, who forced their way into the hall, 
clamouring for reform. Count Montecuculi, marshal of the 
diet, immediately went to the palace, followed by a crowd of 
people, to present a petition to the emperor, praying the same 
reforms as had been granted in other parts of Germany. The 



INSURRECTIONS IN GERMANY. 775 

arcliduke Ludwig, chief of the Home Department, informed 
the count that there was no disposition to make concessions. A 
cabinet council, however, was summoned, and the marshal of 
the diet and those who accompanied him waited in vain for its 
determination, from twelve to four o'clock. The people became 
exasperated by this delay; the students harangued them ; the 
tumult continually increased. Suddenly the troops appeared 
and fired upon the unarmed multitude, killing and wounding a 
great number. Four pieces of cannon were planted on St. 
Stephen's Platz, and the gunners stood by them Avith lighted 
matches. Meanwhile, the alarum drum was beaten ; the Burgher 
Guard appeared in arms, and were received by the popu- 
lace with loud acclamations ; but all further conflict was pre- 
vented by the announcement that Prince Metternich had re- 
signed, that the emperor had acceded to the popular demands, 
and had confided the city to the keeping of the students and 
the burghers. A new ministry was formed under the presi- 
dency of Count Kolowrath, and various measures of grace were 
announced in rapid succession. An amnesty was declared in 
favour of all political prisoners in Galicia and the Lombardo- 
Venetian kingdom. One hundred and fifty Polish and Italian 
prisoners were dismissed from the fortress of Spielberg, infa- 
mous in the annals of Austrian despotism. The Secret Court 
of Police was abolished, and a letter was published from the 
minister. Baron Pillersdorf, to the police officers of all the Aus- 
trian provinces, in which he tells them that a great many of their 
former functions are now illegal. They are forbidden to em- 
ploy spies, " since the free press will not fail to reveal danger- 
ous conspiracies and plots, if any exist." Liberty of the per- 
son and a kind of habeas corpus are officially proclaimed in this 
letter. 

The constitution was proclaimed on the 25th of April, and it 
secured those rights dearest to the mass of the people. The 
imperial parliament consisted of two houses, of which the lower 
one was constituted on the broadest democratic basis. 

In Prussia, after the adjournment of the diet, the people of the 
Rhenish provinces broke out in loud cries for reforms, and these 
demands were echoed from Breslau, Kiinigsberg, and Berlin. A 
great open-air meeting, held on the 13th of March in the capital, 
to petition for reform, ended in a tumult, in which the troops acted 



776 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

with great violence. For nearly a week, Berlin was a continued 
scene of disorder. On the 15th, though the people offered little 
more than passive resistance, ten persons were killed and up- 
wards of a hundred were wounded by the military. While 
such was the state of the capital, sanguinary riots were taking 
place also in Breslau and Konigsberg. On the morning of the 
18th, a deputation arrived in Berlin from Cologne, and at once 
waited on the king and presented a petition for reform. Fre- 
derick William having promised to accede to their demands, 
they replied, "We have been so often deceived and put off that 
we cannot wait any longer; we must insist on a proclamation 
being issued at once, or your majesty will cease to reign over 
the Rhenish provinces." The king was much hurt ; but, after 
some parley, submitted. 

He issued a proclamation, echoing the wish of the German 
people for a federal state, and granting a constitution based on 
liberal principles. This proclamation was received with every 
demonstration of satisfaction on the part of the Prussians. 
Crowds repaired to the palace, and the king appeared at a 
window and was received with tremendous cheers. Unluckily 
the shouts were mistaken by the soldiery for the signal of at- 
tack. Two regiments of dragoons endeavoured to force the 
people back, and some shots were accidentally fired. The 
effect was disastrous. Conceiving the existence of a design to 
massacre them, the masses rushed to arms at once. Barricades 
were erected, and riflemen posted on every house-top and in 
every window. The soldiery had always hated the bourgeoise, 
and were nothing loath to engage with them in a conflict. For 
fifteen hours, the people fought with valour and determination, 
and the soldiers with a fury only increased by resistance. No 
quarter Avas given on either side. 

At five on the morning of the 19th of March, the king 
voluntarily desisted from the contest, without being actually 
defeated. At seven o'clock, a proclamation was issued, addressed 
to the citizens of Berlin, assuring them that the conflict was 
the result of an accident and a mistake, and entreating mutual 
forbearance on both sides. Crowds again thronged to the 
palace of the king, and he appeared and confided himself to 
their protection. The people received him cordially. An am- 
nesty was announced. The military were sent out of the town, 



INSURRECTIONS IN GERMANY. 777 

a liberal ministry formed, and a burgher guard created, in 
which the students of the universities were incorporated. The 
people of Berlin were satisfied. The number of those who foil 
in the conflict on the popular side was about two hundred, of 
whom one hundred and eighty-seven received a public funeral. 
On the part of the military, the loss was three commissioned 
officers and seventeen non-commissioned officers and privates 
killed, and fourteen commissioned officers, fourteen non-com- 
missioned, two hundred and twenty-five rank and file, and one 
surgeon wounded. 

Frederick William had now virtually lost a battle against ms 
own subjects. He hoped to raise his fallen dignity, however, 
by a bold stroke. On the 21st of March, he issued a procla- 
mation, declaring in clear and forcible terms that he would 
head the grand movement for the regeneration of Germany. 
On the same day, the king, wearing the once-proscribed tri- 
colour, rode through the streets of Berlin, and was received 
with enthusiasm. 

A sudden feeling in favour of Poland broke out in Germany 
in the first days of the revolutionary fervour. On the 20th of 
March, the doors of the prison of Berlin were thrown open, 
and the condemned Poles came forth amid the shouts of the 
populace. Mierolawski and his companions were seated in a 
carriage, and the people drew them to the palace and the uni- 
versity. The patriots bore the black, red, and golden banner 
of the German republicans. A Polish deputation from Posen 
arrived in Berlin on the following day, and obtained a division 
of that duchy, so as to give the exiled Poles a home. Eight 
days after the Poles were liberated from the prison of Berlin a 
civil war broke out in Posen, between the people of that nation 
and the Germans. Both sides displayed the most savage cru- 
elty, and the details are too horrid to relate. At last the line 
of demarcation between Polish and German Posen was settled, 
and the insurrection terminated on the 10th of May, by the 
capture of Mierolawski and the defeat of his band, the last 
remnant of a Polish army of thirty thousand men. 

On the 31st of March, five hundred deputies from all parts 
of Germany held their first sitting at Frankfort, as the prelimi- 
nary convention for the formation of a national parliament. 
It was resolved that a national assembly should be elected by 
98 



778 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

universal suffrage, and that any German should be eligible 
thereto for any part of Germany. Having made a few other 
arrangements, the convention adjourned, but left behind it a 
permanent committee of fifty, who, with seventeen " men of 
confidence," constituted from the beginning of April till the 
middle of May, the supreme council that governed Germany. 
A constitution for the collective German states was drawn up, and 
military operations directed against the armed republicans of Ba- 
den. The republicans were commanded by Hecker and Struve. 
The force of the confederation met them on the 20th of April, 
and, after General von Gageon had been treacherously murdered 
in a parley, totally routed them. Hecker escaped ; Struve was 
taken prisoner, but soon after rescued. Friburg was stormed 
on the 24th, and Constanz was occupied on the same day. Her- 
wegh, the poet and communist, arrived with his free corps from 
France too late to prevent the catastrophe. His own men 
(nine hundred) were totally routed on the 27th by a single com- 
pany of Wurtemburg troops, with a loss of twenty-three killed 
and two hundred taken prisoners. Herwegh, with his wife, 
who was armed and in the fight, escaped to Switzerland. 

The German parliament held its first sitting at Frankfort on 
the 18th of May, and on the 28th of June the parliament cre- 
ated the provisional central power for the administration of all 
affairs which affect the whole German nation. Archduke John 
of Austria was elected regent by a large majority. He was 
solemnly installed in oflSce on the 12th of July. 

For two months after the revolution in March, Vienna re- 
mained in a state of uninterrupted quiet. But the corruption 
of the emperor's advisers and the harangues and writings of 
republican leaders, kept the spirit of revolt alive in the minds 
of the people ; and on the 15th of May the public feeling dis- 
played itself in a fresh revolutionary movement. The students 
of the university took the lead. They demanded of the minis- 
try that the military should be withdrawn from the city, that 
the central committee of the national guard should be main- 
tained, and that the election law should be declared null and 
void. The ministers withstood these demands a whole day ; 
but, finding themselves without force sufficient to resist the 
armed petitioners, who were joined by the national guard, they 
yielded, and at midnight the minister of the interior issued a 



INSURRECTIONS IN GERMANY. 779 

proclamation conceding all that was required. This was a vir- 
tual ratification of a new revolution, the constitution of April 
25th being superseded, and it was settled that the diet should 
consist of but one chamber. 

On the 16th of May, the emperor and his family absconded 
from the capital and fled to Innspruck, in the Tyrol. This 
event threw the ministers and the whole population of Vienna 
into a ferment, and messengers were despatched to entreat the 
fugitives to return, but they were obstinate. The aristocratic 
party had counselled the flight of the emperor, and they strove 
to make the event serve their reactionary projects. They 
spread stories of the ill treatment of the emperor by the Vi- 
ennese through all the provinces, with the object of exciting a 
feeling of sympathy for him and a detestation of the liberals. 
A final stroke was then resolved upon to complete the work. 

On the 25th of May, a rumour reached the Viennese that 
three regiments of the military were to enter the city by night, 
and universal alarm was created. The next day the academi- 
cal legion received orders to disband within twenty-four hours. 
They refused to lay down their arms, and the gates of the 
town were shut and guarded by soldiers. But the workmen 
from the suburbs stormed them, and one of the assailants, a 
workman, was killed in the conflict. A general insurrection 
was begun, and barricades arose in every street. This state 
of things lasted until night, and ended in a complete victory 
of the people, whose conditions were again ratified by the mi- 
nisters on the 15th. Things then assumed a comparatively 
quiet state. The barricades were removed, and business re- 
sumed. The emperor still remained at Innspruck ; but he 
appointed his uncle, the archduke John, to represent him in 
the capital and open the assembly in his name. This was ac- 
cordingly done on the 22d of July, in an amicable speech, by the 
archduke. The emperor was at last prevailed upon to return 
to Vienna, where he arrived on the 12th of August, and thus 
ended the second phase in the Viennese insurrection. 

Two days before the rising in Vienna, a meeting was held in 
Prague, which adopted an address to the government, in which 
the equality of the Tchechs and Germans was required to be 
recognised by law, and representative and municipal reform, 
security for personal liberty, equality of all religious denomina- 



780 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

tions, and other liberal measures, demanded by both the Tchecha 
and Germans, who forgot their national hatred for the time. 
A deputation carried the address to the government, which, at 
first, met it with evasive and dilatory compromises, but eventu- 
ally granted all they desired. Bohemia was formed into a se- 
parate state, under the vice-royalty of Francis Joseph, the heir- 
presumptive to the empire. But the Tcshecks soon perceived 
that they reaped all the advantages of the reforms, and they 
set about striving to unite the whole Sclavonic nation into one 
empire. They neglected to send a representative to the Ger- 
man national assembly, and circulated a proclamation inviting 
representatives of the Sclavonic race from all the Austrian 
provinces, and even foreign states, to assemble at Prague on 
the 81st of May, to concert measures for protecting the inde- 
pendence of the Sclavonic people from the encroachments of 
the Germans. 

The congress opened on the 2d of June, and was abruptly 
closed on the 12th. The representatives were cordially unani- 
mous in support of the measures proposed. A manifesto was 
issued to the nations of Christendom, declaring that they were 
about to form a central federation in Austria. The Viennese 
ministry declared the provisional government of Bohemia, which 
was created by the Sclavonians, to be an illegal body, and its 
acts were therefore null and void. This challenge was answered, 
as it was intended it should be, by a general insurrection, which 
raged for five days. Nor was it subdued, until Prince Windisch- 
gratz, the Austrian commander, had bombarded Prague, and 
laid much of it in ruins. Prague relapsed into its former 
dependence on Vienna ; the Sclavonic congress was dispersed, 
and the holding of the Bohemian parliament postponed. The 
most horrid cruelties were practised by the insurgent Tchechs 
upon the soldiers they took alive. Almost the first shot fired 
in the insurrection killed the princess Windischgratz in her owe 
apartment. The prince himself was seized and dragged to a 
lamp-post to be hung, but was rescued by his grenadiers. Five 
minutes afterwards, his artillery swept the streets of Prague. 

War broke out in the latter part of August between the Hun- 
garians and the Croats. Jellachich, the ban of Croatia, was 
attached to the government of Vienna, and the Magyars were 
forced to depend altogether upon their own exertions for success. 



INSURRECTIONS IN GERMANY. 781 

The diet sent a deputation to Vienna before the war broke out, 
but the Viennese assembly would not receive them, and the 
diet, deeply offended by the insult, conferred dictatorial powers 
upon Kossuth. 

Jellachich, at the head of the Croat army, crossed the Drave, 
and, traversing all southern Hungary without meeting an enemy, 
he arrived at Stuhlweissenburg, within a day's march of Pesth, 
the capital of Hungary. He issued a proclamation on crossing 
the frontier, in which he said he invaded Hungary on his sole au- 
thority, and for the purpose of upholding a constitutional mon- 
archy in opposition to the diet. Encouraged by the movement of 
Jellachich, the emperor of Austria resolved to put an end to the 
distractions in Hungary, as he called them. He appointed Count 
Lamberg to command all the forces in the kingdom. The diet 
resolved that the count's commission was illegal, and when he 
arrived at Pesth, in the latter part of September, he was attacked 
by a mob, killed, and his body dragged through the streets. It 
was soon discovered that the imperial government assisted 
Jellachich by secret subsidies, and the Magyars resolved to 
devote their strength to the resistance of his authority. At 
Pesth, every man took up arms, and even ladies worked in the 
trenches. 

While Jellachich was waiting for artillery to lay siege to Pesth, 
he was attacked by an irregular force led by Mezzaros, the 
Hungarian minister of war, and a portion of his cavalry suf- 
fered severely. The ban then withdrew westward to Raab and 
Comorn, where he could command the Danube and the Vienna 
road to Buda. This movement was thought by the people of 
Vienna to be intended to back the reactionary movement of the 
government, and they murmured loudly against all measures 
adverse to Hungary. 

In October, a regiment of German grenadiers, favourable to 
the cause of the people, was ordered to join the expedition 
against the Hungarians. They immediately concerted with the 
national guard and the academical legion, and it was resolved 
to prevent their departure. The confederates broke up the rail- 
way to some distance from the station, in the night, and erected 
a barricade where the soldiers would have to pass. In the 
morning, the grenadiers were ordered to storm the barricaaes, 
but, being joined by their friends, they attacked and routed the 

3 Q 



782 • INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

government troops, and marched into the town. The insur- 
rection became general, and the imperial forces were everywhere 

defeated. Count Latour, the minister of war, was butchered 
in the most horrible manner. On the 7th of October, every 
thing was in the hands of the people, and they might have cho- 
sen their own form of government. The emperor Ferdinand 
left Vienna on the 7th, leaving behind him an address to the 
diet, which promised to aid in ci'ushing the insurgent populace, 
as soon as a force could be collected. The emperor took refuge 
with the Sclavonians, and then declared open war against the 
German and Magyar rebels. Prince Windischgratz was ap- 
pointed commander of all the forces of the empire, except the 
army in Italy. 

Vienna was soon invested by Windischgratz, with one hundred 
thousand men, and one hundred and forty guns. Messen- 
hauser and General Bem commanded the forces in the city. 
The attack began on the 28th of October, and, by the next day^ 
the city was so far reduced that a suspension of hostilities was 
agreed upon while the besieged could deliberate upon a sur- 
render. The greater portion of the forces and the city authori- 
ties agreed upon a surrender, and a disarming had begun on 
the 30th, when news that the Hungarian forces were advancing _ 
from Vrucks broke off all thoughts of surrender, and the battle 
was renewed with vigour on both sides. The slaughter was 
dreadful. The whole city was not subdued until the 2d of No- 
vember, when twenty-five hundred people had fallen on both sides, 
and a great quantity of property been destroyed. The Hun- 
garians were driven off by Jellachich. No quarter was given by 
the savage imperialists, and the city was pillaged. For a week 
after the capture, Windischgratz sanctioned the commission of 
the worst crimes, and the court-martials were busy condemning 
prisoners to be hung, shot, or otherwise punished, with secrecy, 
as if conscious of committing murder, and not satisfying justice. 
Among their victims was Messenhauser, commander of the 
national guard, and Robert Blum, a member of the Frankfort 
assembly. 

The imperial authority was now triumphant in Austria, but 
the lesson which the emperor had learned led him to adopt 
milder measures and more liberal policy than before the in- 
surrection. All veneration for the person of Ferdinand, how- 



INSURRECTIONS IN GERMANY. ygr. 

ever, was at an end among the people, and it was deemed ne- 
cessary by the ministry, that some measure should be taken to 
restore public confidence in the government. By their advice, 
Ferdinand abdicated the throne of Austria, on the 2d of De- 
cember, and was succeeded by the son of the archduke Francis 
Charles, a young man only nineteen years old, who was pro- 
claimed under the title of Francis Joseph I. The accession of 
the new emperor brought peace to all the Austrian states, except 
Hungary. The diet of that country denounced the emperor as 
an usurper, and both sides prepared for war. 

The imperial generals collected all their forces, and enclosed 
Hungary in a ring of bayonets and cannon. The main army 
of invasion was led by Windischgratz, and there were others, 
under Schlich, Dahler, Puchner, Urban, and Wardener. On the 
part of the Hungarians, the most extraordinary exertions were 
made, stimulated by the eloquence of Louis Kossuth, the dic- 
tator, and the appeals of the diet. Having collected an army 
of fifty thousand infantry, with fifty-four cannon, and twelve 
hundred hussars, the Hungarians marched to the plains of Vi- 
enna, where a battle took place with an army of one hundred 
and thirty thousand Austrians, under Windischgra-tz. The Hun- 
garians fought bravely, but were overpowered by numbers, and 
compelled to retire, leaving six thousand men dead upon the 
field. Defeat did not dishearten them ; but, on the contrary, 
the enlistment and equipment of troops proceeded with wonder- 
ful rapidity. Even women joined the army, and fought in the 
subsequent battles. At the close of 1848, more than one hun- 
dred thousand Hungarians were in the field. But their forces 
were divided, while a solid army of one hundred thousand Aus- 
trians and Croats were advancing to their capital Barricades 
were erected on the road to Pesth, but they were avoided by a 
roundabout march by the imperialists, and the Hungarians were 
compelled to leave their capital, after placing a garrison in the 
almost impregnable fortress of Comorn. A Hungarian army of 
sixty thousand men, under the young General Georgey, held the 
plains between the Danube and the Thiers. General Bem de- 
fended the rear, with fifteen thousand men. 

We cannot follow the two armies in all their various move- 
ments. At first, the Hungarians were everywhere driven back, 
and their cause was regarded as hopeless. But they roused 



784 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

themselves to still greater exertions, and began to act on the 
offensive. By skilful manoeuvring, Bem regained Transylvania, 
driving out the Russians "who were advancing in that direction. 
A two days' battle was fought near Exlan, and the Austrians 
claimed the victory, but they were without benefit from it. In 
the mean time, the valiant Georgey defeated the enemy opposed 
to him, in several brilliant engagements. 

The Austrians now fell back in all directions, and were glad 
to escape from the Hungarian territory. Windischgratz was 
succeeded by Welden, said to be the best Austrian general. A 
great battle was fought on the twentieth and twenty-first of 
April, near Ofer, in which the Austrians were totally defeated, 
with the loss of twenty guns and two thousand prisoners. On 
the 24th, Dembinski, at the head of fifteen thousand Magyars 
and Poles, took possession of Pesth, amid the most extravagant 
demonstrations of joy on the part of the populace. The Aus- 
trians then raised the siege of Comorn. 

The triumphant Magyars now made known the terms on which 
thoy would cease hostilities ; but the imperial government re- 
fused to accede to them, and finding the whole strength of the 
empire unable to cope with the heroic defenders of their country, 
the assistance of the giant power of Russia was solicited and 
obtained. Unterrified by this array of power, the Hungarians 
nerved themselves for a last and glorious efi'ort. Kossuth was 
chosen governor of Hungary, and the diet proclaimed their in- 
tention to establish a republic. On the 14th of May, Kossuth 
took the oath of office. According to the report of the minister 
of war, the Hungarian army consisted of three hundred and 
ninety-six thousand armed troops, commanded by Bem, Georgey, 
Dembinski, Perezel, Guyon, Klapka, Dannenburg, Gaspar, 
Vetter, and Aulich. There were s-ixty thousand cavalry, and 
more than four hundred pieces of artillery. The Austrians 
again made preparations for invasion. Welden was removed, 
and Baron Haynau appointed commander-in-chief. At the head 
of a large army, he marched down the Danube, captured several 
towns, and committed acts of the most atrocious cruelty. Jel- 
lachich, with an army of Croats, advanced from the south-west, 
and Prince Paskiewitch, at the head of the Russians, advanced 
from the north-east. 

In the brief campaign which followed, the Magyars defeated 



INSURRECTIONS IN GERMANY. 



786 




KOSSUTH. 



the Croats under Jellachich, and, after a series of combats 
lasting four days, Bern compelled the imperialists to raise the 
siege of Peterwardein. The' information of the defeat of Jel- 
lachich and the Croats was conveyed to Kossuth by Bern, in 
the words, Bern, Bam, Boom ! The object of Kossuth was to 
unite the Hungarians, and fall upon each of the invading 
armies, and beat them before they could unite. But the plans 
of the governor were defeated by the obstinacy or treachery of 
Georgey. In his headstrong rashness, he was entangled be- 
tween the armies of Haynau and Paskiewitch, and from this 
time the Hungarian cause began to droop. The diet threw its 
power into the hands of Georgey, who was proclaimed dictator. 
After a consultation at Arad, with Kossuth, Bern, and other 
leaders, he protested that the struggle was a hopeless one, and 
i-esolved to bring it to an end. The result was an unconditional 
surrender of his whole army into the hands of the Russians, 

,md Hungary was betrayed. 

99 3q2 



786 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HIST0R7 




COUNT BATHTANI. 



Before this treacherous surrender, the garrison of Comorn 
sallied out, and captured the city and citadel of Raab, obtaining 
a complete triumph over the Austrians. But everywhere else, 
the Magyars were defeated by the Russians and Austrians. 
Bern and Guyon were surrounded by the Russians, but succeeded 
in making their escape. Dembinski was defeated in the north, 
and about sixteen thousand men surrendered to the Russians. 
The garrison of Comorn, under General Klapka, still held out, 
and was furnished to stand a long siege. They refused to sur- 
render, except on the most favourable terms. Haynau and Ra- 
detski were opposed to each other on the question of granting 
terms. The ferocious Haynau wanted to storm, slay, and hang 
all that could be taken, but Radetski was humane as well as 
brave, and he opposed it. Humanity triumphed in this instance, 
and the garrison surrendered on good terms. Thus was the 



INSURRECTIONS IN GERMANY. 



787 



revolution in Hungary completely subdued ; partly by the over- 
whelming numbers of the united Austrian and Russian forces, 
but principally by headstrong insubordination, or, as seems 
apparent from the unconditional surrender of Georgey, foul 
treachery. 

With every thing at their mercy, the Austrians, at the insti- 
gation of the savage Haynau, acted -with all the barbarity and 
cruelty that was only to be expected from an uncivilized nation. 
Combatants and non-combatants, priests, women, and children, 
fell victims to the insatiable thirst for vengeance, and were 
either put to death, thrown into prison, or scourged by the con- 
querors. Among the victims whose death excited much sym- 
pathy throughout the civilized nations, was the count Bathyani, 
Kossuth's minister of war. His execution was a murder with- 
out a shadow of justification, and it was conducted with all the 
barbarity which was possible, under the circumstances. The 
conduct of the Austrians excited universal detestation for that 
government throughout Christendom. Kossuth, Bem, Dem- 
binski, and other leaders of the patriots, took refuge in Turkey, 
when they found that all was lost. The Sultan of Turkey pro- 
tected them, and resisted, firmly, the demands for their surrender 
made by Russia and Austria. 




788 



INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 




&AB1BALSI. 



INSUKRECTIONS IN ITALY. 




N Italy, the year 1848 was from the outset 
marked "with important events. First on the 
list is the massacre of Milan, to which we 
shall presently revert. On the 12th of Janu- 
ary, the fete-day of King Ferdinand of Na- 
ples, the people of Palermo and all the great 
towns of Sicily rose simultaneously and drove 
out the Neapolitan troops. On the 28th, the 
Neapolitans received a constitution modelled on the French 
charter of 1830, but in some respects more liberal. The Si- 
cilians were offered their share of this constitution, but they re- 
fused to accept it. They defeated all the royal troops sent 
against them ; elected their own parliament, which was opened 
at Palermo, on the 25th of March, by Ruggiero Settimo, presi- 
dent of the provisional government ; and on the 13th of the 
following month, the deposition of King Ferdinand and the in- 
dependence of Sicily were formally decreed. 

In Tuscany, a series of liberal measures was crowned on the 



INSURRECTIONS IN ITALY. 789 

1st of February by the issue of a constitution better than any 
of the others granted by the four native princes of Italy to 
their subjects, and in one capital item superior to that framed 
for themselves by the Sicilians. 

The Sardinians next obtained a constitution, -which was pub- 
lished on the 5th of March, and Count Cesare Balbo, a well- 
known writer and statesman, was appointed to form a cabinet. 
Piedmont followed in the wake of the kingdom of Sardinia, but 
the constitution of that country gave more power to the execu- 
tive than any of the others. In Rome, the constitution granted 
by the pope was proclaimed on the 15th of March, and on the 
same day the Jesuits were ordered to withdraw from the papal 
dominions. The new constitution, however, was far from being 
satisfactory to the people. The most objectional feature of it 
was the union of the civil and religious regulations. The difi5- 
culty of harmonizing the views of the pope with those of the 
people was frankly stated by the pope in the proclamation in- 
corporating the constitution. 

In the Lombardo- Venetian kingdom, resistance to the Austrian 
authorities began in the early part of January, 1848. Though 
unable to cope in arms with the Austrians, every occasion by 
which they could be annoyed was eagerly seized by the inhabi- 
tants of the kingdom. On the 3d of January, the Austrian 
soldiers were inflamed to such a pitch against the people, that 
they attacked and killed or wounded ninety-one persons. Five 
days after the massacre at Milan, another outrage occurred at 
Pavia. The soldiers attacked a funeral procession of the stu- 
dents, but there they suffered severely themselves. Other out- 
rages followed, and a deep, intense hatred of the Austrians 
was roused in the breasts of the oppressed. Mar1;ial law was 
proclaimed, and the people of that beautiful country were ground 
by an unmerciful military despotism. When the news of the 
revolution in Vienna reached Milan, the people flocked to the 
government house, and demanded the release of all political pri- 
soners, and the formation of a national guard. The soldiers 
fired at the crowd ; a boy of sixteen drew out a pistol and fired 
at the soldiers, exclaiming " Viva V Italia .'" The shot and 
cry roused the people ; they rushed forward, overpowered the 
guard, made the vice-governor prisoner, and planted the tri- 
coloured banner on the palace. Some Croats afterwards fired on 



790 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

the people, and killed five or six of them. A general rising 
took place at once. Radetski -withdrew his men to their re- 
spective barracks, undecided how to act. Bj the time he had 
decided, the city was barricaded. The Austrians numbered 
twelve thousand men, yet they acted on the defensive. The 
conflict raged day and night, until the evening of the 23d of 
March, when the Austrians were compelled to retire towards 
Vienna. The Milanese displayed the greatest bravery through- 
out the contest, and defeated twelve thousand Austrians, with 
cavalry and artillery, when they had not over five hundred guns 
and pistols. Their loss was about one hundred killed, and two 
hundred and fifty wounded. 

The other cities of Lombardy followed the example of Milan, 
and Venice declared itself a republic, Mantua and Verona 
alone sheltered the Austrians. On the 27th, the vanguard of 
the Piedmontese army, under Charles Albert, arrived before Mi- 
lan. But he refused to enter the city, until he had defeated the 
Austrians, which was not destined to be achieved by him. 

The weakness of the administration of the provisional go- 
vernment of Lombardy was the principal cause of its short 
existence. Able men were displaced by the intrigues of weak 
ones, and the greatest confusion prevailed in all departments of 
the government. Parma, Modena, Tuscany, Rome, and Naples 
sent large contingents to the army under Charles Albert. But 
he neglected to prevent the concentration of the Austrian forces, 
although he forced their lines at several points. On the 18th 
of May, Charles Albert laid siege to Peschiera. The Austrians 
were beaten at Goito, in attempting a diversion in its favour. 
Peschiera was taken after two days' fighting, and Charles Albert 
took up his quarters there. These conquests were rendered of 
little avail, however, by the imbecility or treachery of Durando, 
the Roman general, who surrendered Vicenza to Radetski. 
although he knew an army was marching to his assistance, and 
he had a strong force within the city. Radetski soon became 
master of all the Venetian territory, except the capital, which 
was defended by the Neapolitans, under General Pepe. 

In the beginning of July, the Piedmontese army occupied a 
line thirty miles in length ; from Mantua on its right, to Rivoli 
on its left. General Bava defeated four thousand Austrians 
near Governolo ; but this only served to fill Charles Albert 



INSURRECTIONS IN ITALY. 79] 

with false hopes. On the 22d of July, the whole Austrian force 
descended on La Corona, and carried the lines of Rivoli. The 
lines of Somma Campagna were also carried after a brave re- 
sistance, and the Austrians became masters of the whole terri- 
tory formerly held by the Piedmontese, except Peschiera. On 
the 25th, Charles Albert, at the head of thirty thousand men, 
advanced against the Austrians, at Somma Campagna. There 
was fought the decisive battle. It lasted from five in the morn- 
ing till five in the evening. The Piedmontese fought despe- 
rately, and the victory was only decided for the Austrians by 
the arrival of Radetski, with a reserve of twenty thousand men. 
Charles Albert retreated to Milan, with the remnant of his 
army, and preparations were made for a grand stand at that 
city ; but he capitulated to Radetski, and, on the 7th, the Aus- 
trians again ruled in Milan, and things returned to their old 
state. From the oppressive measures taken by Radetski, there 
is no fear that the people of Lombardy will cease to detest 
Austrian rule. 

Venice, forsaken by all her allies, maintained her inde- 
pendence. Besieged and blockaded by land and sea, her peo- 
ple firmly upheld their republican government, and submitted 
to the greatest privations with a fortitude that commanded 
the admiration of their enemies. Manini was the repub- 
lican chief, and he nobly sustained the reputation he bad 
acquired as a pure and able republican. Several encounters 
took place between the Austrians and the heroic defenders of 
Venice, in which the latter were successful. The number of 
their troops was about twenty thousand, many of the legions of 
which were commanded by skilful French officers. Fourteen 
hundred cannon were mounted on thirty-six forts on the shore, 
opposite the city. The siege continued more than five months, 
and then the Venetians surrendered on favourable terms. 

In the mean time, Charles Albert was making extensive pre- 
parations for another campaign. He proclaimed his resolve to 
drive the Austrians beyond the Alps, or perish in the attempt. 
The conflict was obstinate, but of short duration ; and on the 
plains of Verelli, the hopes of Northern Italy were completely 
overthrown. Three successive battles were fought ; the last on 
the 4th of March, 1*849. Fifty thousand men on each side were 
engaged. Charles Albert and his followers displayed the most 



792 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

undaunted heroism, and the Sardinian king sought to die. on the 
field, when he found that all was lost. But death would not be 
invited. The Piedmontese fled to the mountains ; Charles Al- 
bert resigned the Sardinian crown to his son Victor Emanuel, 
and Austrian order was restored to Northern Italy. 

In Rome, the liberal concessions of the pope made him very 
popular for a while. But the demands of the people went far- 
ther than agreed with the views or the intentions of their ruler. 
The pope signified to the chamber of deputies that they wanted 
too much, and that he would be compelled to defend his prero- 
gatives against further encroachment. This symptom of reac- 
tion alarmed the Romans, and the breach between them and 
the pontifi" widened every day. Popular outbreaks were of 
such frequent occurrence, that the pope began to regard the 
palace as an unsafe residence. On the 24th of November, 
1848, the supreme pontiff, disguised as a servant of the Bava- 
rian envoy. Count Spohr, left Rome, and hastened to the town 
of Gaeta, in the kingdom of Naples, where he became the 
guest of King Ferdinand. From Gaeta, the pope issued a 
manifesto, condemning the republicans of Rome, and explaining 
the reasons which induced his flight. He also nominated a 
governing commission, under the lead of Cardinal Castricane, 
to execute his orders in Rome. The people received the mani- 
festo with the most profound contempt and indignation. The 
individuals appointed to administer the government prudently 
left the city as soon as possible. 

A counter-proclamation was immediately issued by the depu- 
ties, and messengers sent to Ga.eta to request the pope to return 
to Rome. The conditions which he demanded were so despotic 
that the people at once set about organizing a government for 
themselves. A day was appointed for the election of a con- 
stituent assembly to frame a constitution. The pope issued a 
protest against the election, and excommunicated all who should 
vote. But excommunication had no power to control the Ro- 
mans, or prevent them from choosing their rulers. They 
laughed at it, and a number of cardinals joined them in censur- 
ing the protest. The election was conducted with order and 
regularity. When the constituent assembly first met, the ques- 
tion came up, what form of government should be adopted by 
the Roman states. The debate was lengthy, but was conducted 



INSURRECTIONS IN ITALY. 798 

calmly and with an earnest desire to reach a wise conclu- 
sion. 

On the morning of the 9th of February, 1849, it was decided 
that the form of government should be a pure democracy, and 
take the name of the Roman republic, and that the pope should be 
guarantied his spiritual power only. Only five members out of 
one hundred and forty-four voted negatively. A provisional 
ministry had been appointed after the refusal of the pope to re- 
turn to Rome, of which Armelini was the head. On the deci- 
sion of the assembly in favour of a republic, he came forward 
and resigned his powers ; but the assembly voted that he and 
his colleagues should retain their authority for the time. The 
proclamation of the republic was received with every mark of joy 
and satisfaction by the Romans. 

In the mean time, the pope remained at Gaeta, uncertain 
what course to pursue. To call in foreign aid would be at once 
to own that he had lost the confidence and attachment of that 
people whom he had asserted were only misled by bad men. 
Yet this course he was compelled to adopt, or remain in exile. 
He appealed to the Catholic powers of Europe ; and Austria, 
Spain, Naples, and even republican France answered him fa- 
vourably. The government of France fitted out an expeuition, 
the destination and purpose of which were shrouded in mys- 
tery. On the 22d of April, 1849, an army, under General 
Oudinot, set sail from Marseilles, and landed at Civita Vecchia. 
Before embarking, a proclamation was issued, the words of which 
led the French troops and the Italian people to believe that 
the army was designed to uphold the republican cause. 

The Austrians, under Marshal Winpan, entered the papal 
states on the north,- an army of Neapolitans advanced on the 
south, and a body of Spaniards landed at Micino. Rome was 
surrounded ; but her brave people were active in ^preparation 
for defence, and firm in maintaining their republic. One soul 
seemed to animate the whole people, and the old Roman spirit 
was awake. To give greater efficiency to the government, a 
triumvirate was appointed, consisting of Armelini, Saffi, and 
Mazzini, the ruling spirit of the republicans. For a time, vic- 
tory favoured the Roman arms. The Neapolitans were routed 
at Palestrina, and the Austrians and Spaniards did not hurry 
their march. The struggle now lay between Rome and France. 
100 3R 



794 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

Oudinot soon arrived before Rome, and sent a deputation to 
the government. They declared the object of the French in- 
vasion was to prevent Austrian interference and restore the 
pope to his dominions, and they demanded that the gates of 
the city should be thrown open to the French army. The go- 
vernment rejected the interference of the French, and refused 
to admit them. Preparations for defence were made on an ex- 
tensive scale, and Oudinot was told that Rome would resist his 
entrance with all her power. The attack was then begun by 
the French. The defenders fought bravely, and, after a long 
struggle, the French were repulsed, with the loss of six hundred 
killed and a large number of wounded and prisoners. The ge- 
neral himself was nearly taken. The Romans were under the 
command of General Garibaldi and other able men. The 
French fell back to wait for reinforcements, which soon arrived, 
and Oudinot found himself at the head of a powerful army, 
supplied with every requisite for a siege. 

To a second summons to surrender, the triumvirs returned 
an answer full of the indignant feeling of the Romans. An 
eloquent appeal was made to the French soldiers by Mazzini*; 
but they had been defeated, and that drowned all thought of 
aiding the Romans. The attack was renewed on the 3d of 
June, and the besieged met it obstinately. Battle after battle 
was fought, and the siege continued until the 30th of June, 
when the triumvirs, considering all further resistance hope- 
less, ceased hostilities and virtually surrendered. The last acts 
of the assembly were to order the constitution to be engraved 
on marble and deposited in the capital, and that funeral ser- 
vices should be celebrated for those who had fallen in defence 
of the city. The French army then entered Rome, and the 
republican leaders fled. General Garibaldi, at the head of a 
small force, took refuge in the mountains, from whence he sub- 
sequently escaped to England. Thus was the Roman republic, 
the free choice of the whole people, crushed by foreign soldiery, 
and those, too, from a republic. The pope could not be in- 
duced to return to Rome for some time after its capture, and 
when he did he was coldly received. 



CALIFOKISIA A]S1> ITS GOLD MINES. 



796 




COLONiiL FREMOWT. 



ACQUISITION OF CALIFORNIA AND ITS 

GOLD MINES. 

EFORE the commencement of hostili- 
ties between the United States and 
Mexico, in 1846, the territory of Up- 
per California formed the north-west- 
ern portion of the republic of Mexico. 
The principal portion of its inhabi- 
tants were Indians, on account of 
whose hostility the interior of the 
territory was but imperfectly known. 
__ The settlements of the descendants 

of the Spaniards and Mexicans were either situated upon the 




796 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

coast of the Pacific, or a short distance in the interior. These 
small villages and towns had grown up around the missions 
established at different places by the Jesuits, at an early period. 
The town of Monterey, situated upon the coast, was the prin- 
cipal port ; while Ciudad de los Angeles, situated" about twenty- 
five miles from the coast, was the largest town, and the capital 
of the territory. The only articles of export were hides and 
tallow, and the commerce of the country was monopolized by a 
few American and English merchants, residing at Monterey, 
San Diego, and San Francisco. These ports were often the 
resort of vessels of war cruising in the Pacific, and also of some 
whalers. Portions of the country, situated principally in the 
valley of San Jose, and the neighbourhood of Los Angeles, were 
considered worth cultivating ; and, at Los Angeles, great quan- 
tities of grapes and various fruits were raised. But the greater 
portion of the territory was thought to be only fit for grazing 
purposes, and, consequently, the population increased very 
slowly. 

Intelligence of the beginning of hostilities upon the Rio 
Grande having been received, on the 2d of July, Commodore 
Sloat, commander of the United States Pacific squadron, arrived 
at Monterey, and on the 7th, the American flag was hoisted 
over that town, amid the cheers of the Americans, and a salute 
of twenty-one guns from the ships in the harbour. A procla- 
mation was then issued to the inhabitants of California, by Com- 
modore Sloat. On the 8th, the American flag was hoisted at 
San Francisco, by Commander Montgomery, of the sloop-of- 
war Portsmouth, and a volunteer corps of resident Americans 
was immediately organized. On the same day, purser Faunt- 
leroy, of the frigate Savannah, was ordered to organize a com- 
pany of dragoons, volunteers from the ships and the citizens on 
shore, to reconnoitre the country, and keep the communication 
open between Monterey and the more northern posts occupied 
by the Americans. Captain Fremont, who had arrived in Cali- 
fornia by an overland journey, with a party of about one hun- 
dred and seventy men, took possession of Sonoma, one of the 
most northerly posts in the territory, and, leaving a small gar- 
rison at that place, marched for the mission of San Juan, about 
thirty miles east of Monterey. He arrived there, and took pos- 
session of the mission without opposition, about one hour before 



CALIFORNIA AND ITS GOLD MINES. 797 

the arrival of purser Fauntleroy, who had marched to accom- 
plish the same object. At San Juan were found nine pioces of 
cannon, two hundred old muskets, twenty kegs of powder, and 
sixty thousand pounds of cannon-shot. Both parties marched 
to Monterey, the next day after taking possession of the mission. 

The fortification of Monterey was commenced immediately 
after the raising of the United States flag. On the 23d, Com- 
modore Sloat sailed in the Levant for the United States, leaving 
Commodore Stockton in command of the Pacific squadron. Im- 
mediately after, the Cyane, Commodore Dupont, with Captain 
Fremont and volunteers on board, sailed for San Diego, and 
the frigate Congress, Commodore Stockton, sailed for San Pe- 
dro, the port of Los Angeles, the capital of California. The 
frigate Savannah remained at Monterey, and the sloop-of-war 
Portsmouth at San Francisco. Thus all the different ports of 
the territory were secured. 

On the 17th of August, Commodore Stockton issued a procla- 
mation, declaring California in the full and peaceable possession ■ 
of the United States, and authorizing the election of civil oflB- 
cers throughout the country. Colonel Fremont soon afterwards 
went northward, with only forty men, intending to recruit and 
return immediately. Early in September, Commodore Stock- 
ton withdrew all his forces, and proceeded with the squadron to 
San Francisco. Capt. Gillespie was left in command of the 
Pueblo de los Angeles, with about thirty riflemen ; and Lieut. 
Talbot in command at Santa Barbara, with only nine men. 
Scarcely had Commodore Stockton arrived at San Francisco, 
when he received information that all the country below Mon- 
terey was in arms, and the Mexican flag again hoisted. 

Commodore Stockton, having come down in the Congress from 
San Francisco, then took command of the sailors, and dragging 
by hand six of the ship's guns, he marched towards Los An- 
geles. At the ranche Sepulvida, they found the Californians 
prepared to meet them. A desperate battle ensued, in which 
the Californians were totally routed, with great loss. Com- 
modore Stockton, having acquired a sufficient number of horses, 
mounted his men, and organized his force for land operations. 
From this battle, the war was waged in a series of skirmishes, 
until January, 1847. 

Li the mean time a party of three hundred men under Gene- 

3&2 



798 INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

ral Kearny, left Santa Fe, in New Mexico, on the 25th of 
September, 1846, and marched for California. Meeting a 
small return party from California, General Kearny received 
information that the country had been completely subdued 
by Commodore Stockton, and in consequence of this infor- 
mation, he sent back two hundred dragoons under Major Sum- 
ner, to remain in New Mexico. With one hundred dragoons, 
and two mountain howitzers, under Captain Moore, General 
Kearny continued his march, and on the 2d of December 
reached Warner's ranche, the frontier settlement of California, 
on the road leading to Sonora. Finding a body of Californians 
mounted, ready to dispute the passage, the small advance guard 
made a furious charge upon them, and being supported by the 
dragoons, the enemy gave way, still keeping up their fire. Cap- 
tain Moore pursued the Californians for about half a mile, when 
they halted, upon seeing an interval between the advance under 
Captain Moore and the rest of the party. They charged Avith 
their lances, and did considerable execution ; but the rest of the 
Americans, coming up, drove them from the field. The loss of 
the Americans was thirty-four, in killed and wounded. The 
march of General Kearny's troops was then continued, and on 
the 12th, they arrived at San Diego, upon the Pacific coast. 

On the 29th of December, General Kearny left San Diego, 
with about six hundred men. This force marched without any 
opposition, until the 8th of January, when they found the Cali- 
fornians, to the number of six hundred mounted men, with four 
pieces of artillery, under the command of General Flores, sta- 
tioned upon the heights which commanded the crossing of the 
river San Gabriel. The necessary dispositions were soon made 
by General Kearny, and his whole force then forded the river, 
carried the heights, and drove the enemy from them, after an 
action of an hour and a half. The Americans encamped on the 
field till the next morning. 

On the next day, the 9th of January, the march was re- 
sumed. When General Kearny's force reached the plains of 
the Mesa, they found the Californians again prepared to dis- 
pute their progress. The artillery opened upon them in front, 
and, after hovering near and skirmishing for about two hours, 
the Californians concentrated their force and charged the left 
flank of the Americans ; but they were quickly repulsed. They 



CALIFORNIA AND ITS GOLD MINKS. 79«j 

then retired, and on the following morning the victorious troops, 
under General Kearny, entered the " City of the Angels," 
without opposition. 

These two battles decided the contest, and, on the 13th of 
January, the enemy capitulated to Lieutenant-colonel Fremont, 
near San Fernando. Peace being restored. General Kearny 
was appointed to the post of civil and military governor of 
California, and he issued a proclamation absolving the Califor- 
nians from their allegiance to Mexico. 

The conquest of California by the United States troops gave 
an impetus to emigration to that country, and things began to 
wear a livelier aspect. At the close of the war with Mexico, 
the United States became possessed of California as far south as 
the thirty-second degree of latitude, and then the settlement of 
the country proceeded more rapidly. Colonel Mason was appoint- 
ed to exercise the functions of governor and military commandant, 
and tranquillity reigned throughout the territory, until an event 
occurred which gave a new spring to affairs, and changed the 
whole appearance of the country in a few years. 

In the latter part of February, 1848, a mechanic, named 
James Marshall, was employed in building a saw-mill for John 
A. Sutter, Esq., on the south branch of a river known in Cah- 
fornia as the American Fork, some fifty miles from New Helvetia, 
or Sutter's Fort. While employed in cutting a mill-race or 
canal for this improvement, Mr. Marshall discovered the pieces 
of gold as they glistened in the sunlight at the bottom of the 
sluices. Pieces of considerable size were taken from the water, 
and in a few days gold to the amount of one hundred and fifty 
dollars was removed in this manner. The labourers on the 
works, mostly Mormons, soon became satisfied of its precious 
nature, and the news spread rapidly about the country. Ex- 
aminations were prosecuted at other points along the stream, 
and almost everywhere with success. Reports of a most mar- 
vellous nature soon reached the coast touching these mines. 
Their apparent extravagance created incredulity, and the pub- 
lic attention was not fully called to the subject until gold-dust 
or grain-gold was brought into the market in considerable 
quantities for sale. Doubt soon became belief, and a change, 
almost magical in its nature, pervaded the whole population. 
Lawyers, doctors, clergymen, farmers, mechanics, merchants, 



800. INCIDENTS OF MODERN HISTORY. 

sailors, and soldiers, left their legitimate occupations to embark 
on a business -where fortunes were to be made in a few weeks. 
Villages and districts, where all had been bustle, industry, and 
improvement, were soon left without male population. Mecha- 
nics, merchants, and magistrates were alike off to the mines, 
and all kinds of useful occupation, except gold-digging, were 
here apparently at an end. 

At one time only seven persons were left in the town of San 
Francisco, in consequence of the rush for the gold diggings. 
The price of all kinds of labour and of merchandise became 
enormously high. The news of the discovery was not long in 
reaching the States, and then began the influx of immigration. 
Every route leading to the El Dorado was filled with anxious 
ones, and the shortest road thither became the general demand. 
Companies for mining purposes were formed in all directions. 
The excitement was general and intense. 

In the latter part of the year 1848, the town of San Fran- 
cisco had increased wonderfully in size, and new towns were 
laid out at various points between that port and the mines. 
Continued discoveries of gold at various places on the tributa- 
ries of the Sacramento added new fuel to keep up the heat of 
excitement, and emigrants from the United States, Chili, 
Mexico, and even China, poured into San Francisco, or came 
by the overland journey from the Atlantic states of the Union. 
The old towns and villages began to give signs of progress, and, 
as the ports began to be the resort of a great number of ves- 
sels of all nations, bringing great quantities of merchandise for 
the expected increase of demand, the towns situated in the fer- 
tile valleys of the interior attracted some who preferred trust- 
ing to the sure reward of trade, or tilling the ground, to bear- 
ing the fatigues of gold-digging. From being a half-settled, 
half-explored grazing country, California became the centre of 
attraction for all nations, and one of the most important com 
mercial countries on the earth. 



THE END. 



1846 



